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PrintPUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan—A unit of Oriental Resources Peninsula Inc. (ORE) is eyeing to increase nickel-ore production in its nickel mine in the nearby town of Narra from 10,000 metric tons to 14,000 MT per day within the year.
Citinickel Mines and Development Corp. Inc. Resident Manager Jainal Uy said the company wants to take advantage of the high price of nickel, coupled by the increase in demand of buyers owing to the closure of another nickel mine in Surigao, the Nocnoc mine in Surigao City.
The prevailing price of nickel ore with high-grade iron content is pegged at $18 per ton. Last year the price of the same quality of ore was pegged at $16 per ton.
“Market preference is now high-grade iron content,” he said, but that they are also working to enhance the segregation of nickel ores with high-grade iron content from ores with low-grade iron content, to maximize revenue potentials.
“Mataas ang nickel ngayon because [the] Surigao mine] has closed,” he said, referring to the Nocnoc nickel mine in Surigao City.
The Narra nickel mine produces nickel ore with a grade of 1.8 percent to 2 percent, the highest in industry standard. It contains about 48 percent iron.
The mine which started commercial operation in 2011 produced 1.2-million metric tons (MMT) of ore during its first year of operation.
Last year the mine produced 2 MMT. For 2013 the company is eyeing to maintain the same production.
The mining tenement of ORE-CDMC in Barangay San Isidro is about 786 hectares, of which about 30 percent has been explored so far.
Uy said the company is also eyeing to expand exploration within the said mining tenement and is looking at expanding in nearby areas, with the hope of doubling its mine area to double its production capacity.
Talks with sister companies are ongoing for possible expansion. He said this would only require them to request for an amended environmental compliance certificate from the Environmental Management Bureau and the go-signal of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Aside from Narra, the company is also operating another nickel mine in Espanola, also in Palawan, which is three hours away by land.
The Narra nickel plant currently employs 400 regular employees and 400 job-order employees. The workers are mostly residents of Narra and nearby towns in Palawan.
The company’s nickel ore is being shipped out to Australia, China and Japan.
Uy said the plan to put up a smelting plant in Narra is currently on hold. Instead, he said, ORE, its mother company, is planning to bring in one crusher to maximize the revenue potential of the mine.
“We are waiting for power supply to become available. Right now, the plan is to put a plant elsewhere, like in Cebu, where there is adequate power supply,” he said.
The decision to put on hold the establishment of a smelting plant was on account of power-supply shortage in Palawan, and the strong opposition of various stakeholders on the establishment of coal-fired power plants in the island, and mining itself.
The company earlier announced plans to put up a smelting plant using the electric blast furnace technology, but the needed power supply is nowhere on site at the moment, he said.
Downstream processing of minerals potentially increases the mining company’s revenue by eightfold to 10 folds and is being pursued by the Aquino administration, with the hope of enhancing the mineral sector’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product from its current contribution of less than 1 percent to about 4 percent.
He said the company is not keen on partnering with other firms with smelting plants, adding it will be more prudent and wise to have its own smelting plant in the near future.
Uy said corrective measures have been institutionalized at the Narra nickel plant to avoid a repeat of the accidental spill of sediments from its silt ponds.
Last November 25 a spill from its silt pond dumped some 7,500 liters of sediments in nearby water bodies, contaminating the Pinagduguan River and the San Isidro Falls, and for which it was slapped with a P375-million fine.
Because of the spill, the company had to stop production for about two months to focus on the cleanup and rehabilitation effort in the two water bodies, and about 70 farmlands and fish ponds near the mine.
The company spent about P300,000 for the hiring of 100 residents to fast track the cleanup operations.
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