Apex Mining Co. Inc. of billionaire Enrique Razon Jr. clarified the recent visit of the company’s top executive and geologists in Mongolia has nothing to do with the potential divestment of the gold project in the East Asian country.
In its clarification of news reports, Apex Mining said the listed firm’s investor relations officer Ramon Peter Adviento “was not able to give the proper context” of the Mongolian gold asset.
The Khar At Uui Gold Project is valued at only P161 million, contrary to P1.3 billion as disclosed by Adviento earlier.
“The recent visit to Mongolia by our president and geologists intended to review the strategy on how we will be able to maximize the opportunities with the current favorable mining environment by meeting the partners and stakeholders and revisiting the previous data and exploration plans,” Apex Mining said.
Adviento, in a virtual forum organized by Philstocks Financial Inc., earlier said Apex Mining president and CEO Luis Sarmiento visited the country to discuss the possibility of divesting the gold mining assets with their partners.
“We might be divesting our Mongolian assets, hopefully, reverse that impairment charge of P1.3 billion,” he added.
Apex Mining owns a significant interest in the gold exploration project in Mongolia through its wholly-owned subsidiary Monte Oro Resources & Energy Inc. (Morei).
This is registered under the joint venture company Erdeneminas LLC, 51 percent of which is owned by Minas de Oro Mongol LLC, a unit of Morei and 49 percent by Mongolian exploration company Erdenejas LLC.
Apex Mining likewise denied plans to expand its mining footprint abroad where the Razon Group is present and export human capital to open up new mines.
“There is no plan to gear our expansion to areas where there are ports run by [International Container Terminal Services Inc.] and our geologists are not deliberately looking at properties in the areas where the Razon Group has ports,” it added.
ICTSI, another entity led by Razon, is in the business of acquiring, developing, managing and operating container ports and terminals worldwide.
In achieving the “world class mining status,” Apex Mining said Adviento meant to say the company would no longer be called a small player, paving the way for unlocking opportunities in better jurisdictions such as Canada.