MANILA, Philippines—Macroasia Corp. expects to complete exploration activities in its P740-million Infanta and Celestial nickel project in Palawan by early 2010.

In a project update presented to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, MacroAsia vice president for planning and business development Amador T. Sendin said the company might spend about P180 million this year for pre-operation activities, including drilling.

The company had programmed to spend a total of P738 million for the exploration and operation phases of the project.

The P373 million earmarked for pre-operation expenses, including exploration, will be internally funded. About P365 million for plant construction and related expenses will come from borrowings.

According to latest estimates, MacroAsia’s Infanta and Celestial project in Barangay Ipilan, Brooke’s Point in Palawan has an ore resource of more than 92 million metric tons with nickel grade of 1.01 to 2 percent.

The mine is estimated to last 13 years with 12 million wet metric tons (WMT) of mineable ore.

The start-up capacity programmed for mining operations is 170,000 WMT a year. This would gradually increase to 800,000 WMT in full scale production.