TUBA, Benguet—The mandate of the management of Philex Mining Corp. is to extend its Padcal mine operations here beyond its projected life of 2022, president and chief executive officer engineer Eulalio B. Austin Jr. said.
Experts had projected Padcal to have a mine life up to 2022 based on its existing ore deposits in its tenement area in this town, the head the country’s largest gold and copper producer said.
“The company is trying its best to make sure that Philex will operate beyond 2022, because there will be a great social problem in the area once the mine firm will not be able to extend its projected mine life,” Austin stressed.
Philex’s total tenement area is more than 14,000 hectares, but its current operations only cover five percent of it. Thus, Austin said there is a possibility they can find sufficient older deposits or higher grades of ore that will allow Philex to extend Padcal.
Prevailing world metal prices is another factor in Padcal’s extension, Austin said, because the price of copper has been stable but that of gold remains unpredictable, although it is on the rise.
The firm’s exploration team is working double time to look for possible sufficient ore deposits within Padcal, which would help extend its mine life and maximize its existing facilities “beneficial to the economic growth of its host and neighboring communities,” he said.
Philex recently celebrated its 60th year as a company, and Austin said the mining firm wants to continue helping the development of remote communities within the mineral-rich areas of Tuba and Itogon, which are its host and neighboring communities.
Philex “will continue to be a catalyst of rural and national development through the sustained practice of responsible mining, worthy of emulation by other mining companies not only in the country but also in the different parts of the world,” Austin said.
The firm has helped uplift the living conditions of thousands of people in Padcal’s host communities through sustainable livelihood and employment opportunities, especially for qualified people in the areas where it operates, he said.
A member of the Kankanaey tribe in the Mountain Province, Austin said he wants Philex to be “a primordial economic driver of the lives of indigenous peoples” and to empower them to become “instruments of change in various aspects of governance, to uplift the status of indigenous peoples in the corporate world.”