Two new DMCI Mining sites ready for business next year

DMCI Mining Corp., the mining business of the Consunji family’s holdings company, said two new mine sites were set to be operational by 2024.

DMCI Mining president Tulsi Das Reyes said the first mining project in Zambales was “so close” to completion having just cleared the hurdles in construction.

“I want to say yes (it is fully completed) … but it’s not done until it’s done. [It is] 99 percent [finished] but you never know until it’s signed, what will happen,” he said.

Reyes said DMCI Mining was working on the documentation flow for the nickel site in Zambales, which would rise inside an existing field operated by subsidiary Zambales Diversified Metals Corp. (ZDMC).

The mining company had earmarked about P250 million to develop the nickel mine to be run by another unit, Zambales Chromite Mining Co. (ZCMC). The project was projected to produce about 20 million metric tons (MT).

Reyes said the second mining project in an undisclosed area would commence operations by the second quarter of next year.

He did not divulge more details about the second project, which was estimated to generate at least 70 million MT, but only said it would involve the development of a new port on the project site.

At present, DMCI Mining operates two open-pit mines in Zambales through units Berong Nickel Corp. (BNC) and ZDMC. Both extract nickel ore, chromite and iron laterite using low-cost surface mining techniques.

These sites do not require chemical processing or complex waste handling to produce mid- to high-grade nickel ore for export to China, Japan and other markets.

DMCI Mining recently raised the budget for rehabilitating BNC’s nickel project in Palawan by P50 million due to the significant increase in fuel costs. The initial budget for the rehabilitation program was set at P110 million.

The firm has so far spent almost P80 million to rehabilitate the mine site in Quezon town and was in no rush to complete the improvement works.

DMCI Mining is anticipating both production and shipment to surpass last year’s levels.

In the first semester of 2023, output nearly doubled to 1.12 million wet metric tons (WMT) from 567,000 WMT in the same period a year ago.

The nine-month output exceeded the 2022 full-year production of 1.03 million WMT. INQ