Berong Nickel not to reopen Philippines nickel mine until price rebounds
Monday, 21 Sep 2009
It is reported that Berong Nickel Corporation will not reopen its nickel mine in southwestern Philippines, suspended since February 2009, until nickel prices rebound to at least USD 18,000 per tonne.
Mr George Bujtor head of mining operations at Atlas Consolidated Mining said that "Nickel prices are still too low to restart operations. The figure you're looking at when you might want to restart is at least around USD 18,000 a tonne for nickel."
Berong Nickel, in which London listed Toledo Mining Corporation has a 56.1% stake, halted nickel production in Palawan in February, cutting more than 600 jobs amid poor demand for the stainless steel ingredient and falling prices.
Mr Bujtor said that Berong has shipped 150,000 tonnes of nickel laterite ore to BHP Billiton from its stockpile and will not ship any more unless production resumes. There is still 150,000 tonnes of ore in stock but the grade is below what BHP needs.
Mr Martin Buckingham CFO of Atlas said that the company is studying the possibility of building a heap leach plant at the Toledo mine in the central Cebu province to be able to process 1.2 billion tonnes of low grade copper. He added that "We're looking at the economics of that, but it's in the very, very early days."
