Study confirms Coal Asia’s Davao deposits

MANILA, Philippines—Coal mining firm Coal Asia Holdings Inc. has secured a third-party validation that the group’s coal deposits in Davao Oriental were economically and technically viable to extract.

In a press statement, the newly listed coal mining firm updated the evaluation of its mineable coal reserves within 400 hectares of its coal operating contract (COC) area in Davao Oriental, equal to 3 percent of the total coal concession area of 13,000 hectares. At current prices, Coal Asia said this represented an estimated enterprise value of P4.1 billion at current coal prices.

“Given the results of this latest study, it appears that Coal Asia is well on its way to exceeding an earlier independent valuation by Multinational Investment Bancorporation (MIB) which had valued the company at P12.5 billion considering the entire 13,000 hectares in Davao Oriental and Zamboanga Sibugay,” the company statement said.

The third-party assessment was done by Engr. Graciano Calanog Jr., a practicing mining engineer with 36 years of experience in the mining industry. The UP-educated Calanog has had extensive experience in the preparation of enterprise and mine valuation reports for several foreign and local mining companies as well as the evaluation of feasibility studies.

He has also been part of the senior management of government institutions that had large mining portfolios such as the Asset Privatization Trust (APT) and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).