Lepanto set to mine copper anew

Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co.  is set to resume its copper operations by the middle of this year as the price of the red metal has gone up above $2 a pound.

Bryan Yap, Lepanto president and chief operating officer, said 13 rigs were being used in an extensive underground drilling program to define the remaining resources of the copper mine. Lepanto expects results of the drilling to be ready by the end of July.

Yap added that a few potential buyers have shown interest in buying Lepanto’s arsenic- and gold-bearing copper concentrates.

“We are looking at restarting the copper [operations] because we will be using the same resources we have in mining and, at the same time, we know what we have because these areas we have mined before,” Yap told the Inquirer. “We are just re-mining the ones that we have mined before.”

Lepanto is spending P500 million mainly to restart its copper operations.

The company hopes to return to profitability this year as gold prices have also risen more than 16 percent and remained above $1200 an ounce since the start of the year. The price of the precious metal is forecast to increase gradually this year. Lepanto suffered a net loss of P185 million in the first quarter of 2016. It produced 5,821 ounces of gold and 9,520 ounces of silver during the period.

The company’s main focus will still be the Victoria gold operation where it hopes to develop other prospects to raise production to a level that will result in a neutral cashflow in 2016. Lepanto shut down its copper operations in 1997 and focused on gold production.