OceanaGold Philippines budgets $7M for Didipio, new mine site

MANILA, Philippines – OceanaGold Philippines plans to spend up to $7 million for its exploration program this year in hopes of expanding the Didipio gold-copper mine in Luzon and discovering new resources in a nearby area.

Gerard Bond, president and CEO of parent company OceanaGold Corp., said $2 million of the total would be set aside for exploration in Napartan, located 9 kilometers northwest of the Didipio mine in Nueva Vizcaya province.

“We’re in the process of getting drills to the site and we look forward to drilling,” Bond told reporters last week.

He said they needed to have the drilling commencing in about a month. “We think there could be gold there but we will only know when we put the drills in,” he added.The company’s Canada-based parent firm announced last month plans to raise as much as P7.9 billion from a planned initial public offering (IPO) in May.

IPO planned in May

OceanaGold will be the first mining company to list on the Philippine Stock Exchange since 2012, after Tiu-led Coal Asia. It is the second company to apply for an IPO this year after tycoon Edgar Saavedra’s Citicore Renewable Energy Corp.

READ: OceanaGold files P7.9-B IPO bid

Bond said $3 million to $5 million of the budget would be spent on further explorations within the existing Didipio mine.

OceanaGold acquired the gold-copper project in 2006, which then began commercial operations in 2013.

However, operations were suspended in 2019 due to the expiration of the 25-year Didipio Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA). This was renewed in July 2021 for another 25 years.

An FTAA grants a company exclusive rights to explore, mine, process, transport and export minerals and mineral products that may be produced from a contracted area.OceanaGold mills about 4 million tons per annum via its underground and open pit operations in Didipio, according to Bond. INQ