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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (17614)	4/11/2008 9:19:35 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 193918

Mining sector to grow five-fold in four years -- official Agence France-Presse First Posted 17:23:00 04/11/2008 business.inquirer.net MANILA, Philippines -- The mining sector is expected to grow five-fold over the next four years, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Joselito Atienza said Friday. "The bulk of the projected investments are expected to come in between 2008 and 2010 when the bigger, world-class mining investors progress to the construction and development stages," he said in a statement. Manila has approved 40 mining processing and exploration projects with a total $1.4 billion in investments from 2004 to end-2007, it said. These have potential additional investments of another $9 billion up to 2011 for a total of $10.4 billion, he added. Copper production should rise four times from 216,000 dry tons in 2007 to 830,000 dry tons in 2008, while chromite would almost double from 37,000 dry tons to 63,000 dry tons for the same period, he said. Gold output would double up from 1.2 million to 2.7 million ounces, while silver will shoot up six times from 0.89 million ounces to five million ounces, he added. He said direct nickel ore production is expected to slow down by about 20 percent but nickel concentrate production will improve by almost 10 times with additional nickel processing plants coming on stream. By 2011, the government also expects to have cobalt and zinc production of 4,500 tons and 20,000 tons, respectively. Ferronickel production is projected at 50,000 tons, while annual calcined nickel ore output would be around 300,000 tons. "The rise in production volume will expectedly raise the production value of the minerals industry, which is seen to reach over $10 billion, almost five times that of 2007's $3 billion," he said. "It is expected that at such level, the Philippine minerals industry's contribution to Philippine exports will be in the vicinity of 6.5 percent, enough for the Philippines to be classified as a mining country'" based on World Bank standards, he added. The statement said Atienza is attending an Asia Mining Congress in Singapore. Of 63 projects approved by the government, 10 are in production while eight more are expected to go on stream within the year and in early 2009, he said. Manila launched a program to revive the minerals industry in 2003 with the passage of a new mining code that opened up the sector to foreign investment.