Apex first-quarter income surged 154%

Apex Mining Co. Inc. saw its first-quarter consolidated net income surge by 154 percent year-on-year to P100.2 million from P39.3 million in the same period of 2016.

Apex said this was achieved mainly due to record-highs in throughput at the mill in its Maco mine in Compostela Valley as well as in gold output.

Also in the first quarter, revenue from Maco jumped 28 percent to P991.5 million from P775.4 million in the year ago period.

The Maco mine turned out 14,969 ounces of gold and 75,359 ounces of silver, respectively showing an increase of 17 percent and 23 percent.

The company said in a statement the surge in production resulted from a similarly record-high mill throughput of 135,904 tons for the quarter or a daily average of 1,677 tons.

Apex said that, during the reporting period, gold prices rose to $1,234 per ounce from $1,214 in 2016, while silver prices rose to $18 per ounce from $15 previously.

“We aim to stabilize the Maco mine milling tonnage to 1,800 tons per day by year end,” Apex president and chief executive Walter W. Brown said. “If we are able to achieve this, we should see better metal production this year.”

Brown said that as long as metal prices remain close to their current level, the company expects continuing earnings growth in 2017.

Apex’s consolidated accounts include those of Monte Oro Resources & Energy Inc. (MORE), a wholly-owned subsidiary acquired in October 2014 and which has a processing plant in Camarines Norte, through Paracale Gold Ltd.

MORE has other mining interests in Mongolia, Burma (Myanmar), Sierra Leone, and Uganda. It also owns 30 percent participating interests in Service Contract (SC) 72 for natural gas in the Sampaguita gas field offshore northwest of Palawan in the West Philippine Sea.

The accounts of Itogon-Suyoc Resources Inc. (ISRI), a 98 percent-owned subsidiary acquired in June 2015, are also included. —RONNEL W. DOMINGO