MANILA, Philippines--Canadian mining firm Philippine Metals Corp. plans to invest about $300,000 to explore copper deposits in Leyte province in the central-eastern Philippines, said Tom Vaillancourt, vice president for operations.

Vaillancourt said Philippine Metals could spend that amount on an airborne geological survey alone.

“It’s difficult to say how much we will be investing for sure until we get our exploration permits,” he said. “We still have to do field sampling and other tests. So, most likely, we will spend slightly higher than $300,000 for the whole exploration work.”

Philippine Metals, a mineral exploration and development company, was established to carry out exploration and development of gold and base metal deposits in the Philippines.

Vaillancourt said the company was awaiting issuance of an exploration permit for Leyte, which he said was expected “shortly after the New Year.”

Its documents show that the company seeks to acquire fully the Taurus-Suhi sulfide project in the towns of Alang-alang, Santa Fe and Palo and the capital city Tacloban. The mineral site, which is said to host a massive sulfide belt, covers 9,895 hectares.

The company says acquiring the whole project, covered by two separate agreements, can cost $1.37 million.

It says it plans to do a tenement-scale geologic mapping program in conjunction with a soil and rock sampling program.

Philippine Metals is also eyeing copper deposits at the Malitao mine in Calanasan town in the northern province of Apayao, covering 971 hectares, and the Dilong Mine in Tubo town in the northern province of Abra, Vaillancourt said. Edited by INQUIRER.net