DMCI Mining plans to restart Berong nickel mine in the Philippines
By: Winnie Lee
London — DMCI Mining plans to restart mining this year at its Berong nickel project in the Philippine province of Palawan after the lifting of a suspension order by the country’s environment and natural resources authorities last November.
DMCI president Cesar Simbulan also said 2019 would remain tough for the nickel miner as it will be shipping mostly lower-grade ore.
DMCI has nearly depleted selling higher-grade ore inventory in the past two years after Manila suspended Berong Nickel in mid-2016 and closed DMCI’s second nickel operation Zambales Diversified Metals over environmental violations in Feb 2017.
DMCI shipped 643,000 wmt of nickel ore in 2018, up 22% from 2017. The average nickel grade of the shipments rose 13% to 1.7%.
The average grade of nickel ore shipments this year will be around 1.57%.
According to the Philippine Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Berong Nickel’s output was 867,817 wmt in 2015, then 341,190 wmt in 2016.
Source: S&P Global