DMCI Holdings Inc. of the Consunji Group expects 2019 to be a tough year for the mining business even with the lifting of the suspension of one of its nickel assets, Berong Nickel Corp., in November last year.
“We will be shipping mostly lower grade nickel which fetches a lower price in the market. Our inventory is also nearly depleted,” said DMCI Mining Corp. president Cesar Simbulan Jr.
DMCI Mining in 2018 shipped 643,000 wet metric tons of nickel ore, a 22-percent increase from 525,000 WMT in the previous year. The average nickel grade of shipments stood at 1.70 percent, up 13 percent year-on-year from 1.51 percent.
The company this year expects to ship nickel ore with an average grade of 1.57 percent. It will also likely deliver 850,000 WMT of nickel ore from the Berong mine in Palawan province.
DMCI Mining is still working on the reopening of other nickel asset—Zambales Diversified Metals Corp. in Zambales province.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources in an order dated November 15, 2018 partially granted ZDMC’s appeal by modifying an earlier closure order to a ruling suspending the operations, production and shipment of the company.
The DENR also said ZDMC may be permitted to operate again once it meets certain conditions, which include continued rehabilitation and reforestation of the mine site as well as management of environmental structures in the area.
ZDMC has since submitted its action plan to address the conditions. The company, however, has yet to receive a positive response from the DENR.
On a standalone basis, DMCI Mining recorded a 93-percent surge in net income from P99 million in 2017 to P190 million the following year.
The company attributed the higher profit to a 22-percent rise in nickel shipment volume of higher-grade nickel.
Majority of the shipments made in 2018, or 430,000 WMT, came from the old stockpile of the Berong mine, while the rest were from the inventory of the Zambales mine.