Berong Nickel boosts budget for mine rehab

MANILA  -Berong Nickel Corp. (BNC) will spend another P50 million to finish rehabilitating its nickel project in Palawan in four years’ time, its parent firm DMCI Mining Corp. said on Thursday.

DMCI Mining president Tulsi Das Reyes said they have raised the budget for revitalizing the nickel site located in Quezon town after the cost of fuel increased significantly.

“Fuel is the number one, two and three. When we made that budget, fuel prices were not that high,” Reyes said.

The firm initially earmarked P110 million for the six-year rehabilitation program which commenced in June last year. So far, it has spent almost P80 million.

Reyes said the rehabilitation of the mine site in Quezon town is “ahead of schedule” and is now “about 75 percent” complete.

Even so, BNC is not rushing its improvement works and intends to focus on doing it properly.

“What we are doing now is we are still planting,” he said, adding that they are also working to stabilize the soil in the area.

“I want to make sure that when they showcase [the final mine rehabilitation plan], it’s as close to perfect as possible. There’s no incentive for us to finish early so let’s do right,” he added.

BNC earlier reported it rehabilitated more than 30 hectares of the Berong nickel mine out of its annual land preparation target of 34 hectares for 2023.

The Berong mine is one of the two operating nickel mining assets of DMCI Mining whose operations started in October 2006. It was fully depleted by December 2021.

The other nickel asset of DMCI Mining is Zambales Chromite Mining Co., which recently bagged the Presidential Mineral Industry Environmental Award. INQ