MANILA – As it expects to hit record production and shipment this year, DMCI Mining Corp., the mining unit of the Consunji family’s holdings company, is further expanding its imprint in the industry with the opening of two more sites.
One mine will be operational by December this year and the second one by the second quarter of 2024, DMCI Holdings said in a disclosure, which quoted DMCI Mining president Tulsi Das Reyes.
The nickel mine, to be run by another unit, Zambales Chromite Mining Co. (ZCMC), is estimated to produce approximately 20 million metric tons (MT).DMCI Mining is working on securing the necessary permits to get the Zambales mine site up and running, including a go-signal from regulators to cut trees.
“We will possibly, I’m confident we’ll get the permit, shovels in the ground, depending on the timeline of our suppliers, the way the regulators approve our permit,” he said. “But I’m very confident it’ll happen within the proper time frame plus minus one month.”
Reyes did not disclose the location of the second mining project, saying only it was projected to generate at least 70 million MT.
“Both mines are medium- to high-grade, ang ganda talaga (they’re really good),” he said.
DMCI Mining currently operates two open-pit mines in Zambales through units Berong Nickel Corp. and ZDMC.
The company is also anticipating production and shipment to surpass last year’s levels.
He said ZDMC usually averages 1 million MT a year, but the number was already hit in the first six months of 2023.
“[We’re] very pleased that we will have [a] historical year in terms of shipments … and that will help offset the lower prices because it’s a volume gain. If the volume is high, the cost per [MT] will decline,” Reyes said.
In the first semester of 2023, output nearly doubled to 1.12 million wet metric tons (WMT) from 567,000 WMT in the same period a year ago. The volume exceeded the 2022 full-year production of 1.03 million WMT.
Shipments stood at 1.06 million WMT during the reference period, equivalent to 73 percent of the total sales volume of 1.45 million WMT in the previous year.
DMCI Mining recorded a net income of P708 million in the first half, a 35-percent drop on the back of lower selling prices and increased costs from higher shipments, fuel consumption, depreciation, amortization and labor expenses.