MANILA, Philippines--British mining firm European Nickel Plc is investing $20 million to put up a heap leaching facility in Zambales that will test the compatibility of this type of processing with Philippine nickel ore.

On the sidelines of the 2008 Sustainable Mining Exploration and Investment, Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Horacio Ramos said Wednesday that the facility would only be on a "laboratory scale."

"This [facility] is just for research on the amenability of heap leaching on Philippine nickel ore. They had briefed us on this project two months ago," Ramos said.

Heap leaching is a mining process used to extract precious metals (such as nickel) and copper compounds from ore. The recovery rate is usually around 70 percent, or lower than other types of processing such as atmospheric leaching and High Pressure Acid Leaching.

According to Ramos, European Nickel will source the nickel ore it will test from Rusina Mining, which operates the Acoje mine in Zambales and Berong Nickel Corp., where it holds an 18.7-percent stake.