Ramos said ongoing work at OceanaGold’s Didipio copper-gold project in Nueva Vizcaya had been delayed due to a $185-million funding shortfall. OceanaGold Chief Executive Steve Orr said that the company was considering several funding options, including conventional and hybrid debt facilities, a placement to current shareholders, and joint venture or merger opportunities. OceanaGold has suspended a number of contracts and activities related to the project, as part of its “initiatives to control project expenditures until supplemental financing has been completed for the Didipio project,” Orr said. “There may be a delay to the project commissioning date as a result of this partial suspension. It really depends upon how long it takes for us to complete one or more of the financing options and secure funds.” These measures are expected to push project completion date beyond mid-2009, thus delaying the start of its gold and copper production, Orr said.

“Based on a gold price of $800 per ounce and a copper price of $3.50/lb, Didipio’s rate of return is 22%,” he said. “The company currently has $95 million in cash to ensure that the primary value-adding initiatives at the project continue while we complete our supplemental financing.” Orr added that the capital cost for the Didipio project is estimated at $320 million. and that the Didipio project remained an “important part of OceanaGold’s growth strategy. This is a long life and world-class deposit with robust cash flows. We believe it will be the first of a number of deposits that we will mine in this prospective mineral district.”

Said to be one of the highest grade gold-copper porphyries in the world, the Didipio gold-copper zone was found to contain a reserve of 32.98 million metric tons at 1.48 g/mt gold and 0.58% copper.

On the plus side, Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. recently said its subsidiary is set to resume its copper production in Toledo, Cebu, with the near completion of its rehabilitation. Atlas unit Carmen Copper Corp. operates the Toledo mine. In a disclosure to the Philippines Stock Exchange, Atlas said Phase 1 of its rehabilitation of the Toledo plant is almost done, adding the company recently installed process facilities and equipment to start its operation within the month. Under its mine feasibility plan, Phase 1 operation would entail producing and processing 20,000 mt/d of copper ore. Further, Atlas said that initial ore is being sourced and mined by open-cast method from the South Lutopan orebody with more than 150,000 mt already on stockpile and about 600,000 mt exposed for mining.

When the second phase of the rehabilitation is done, the company intends to operate at full capacity, processing 42,000 mt/d and producing 130 million lb of copper, 70,000 oz of gold, 260,000 oz of silver, 160,000 dry mt of pyrite and 440,000 dry mt of iron ore magnetite annually. The company earlier said it expects to seal a multimillion- dollar loan for its mining ventures, after reaching a verbal agreement with an unspecified global capital fund for a $20-million bridge loan facility. It said the bridge loan may be transformed into a convertible loan, the terms of which shall provide for a conversion price of P12.60/share. This means that if the lender agrees to the terms, it would take an ownership stake in Atlas.

Atlas plans to use the loan proceeds for the mining operations of Carmen Copper. Atlas had inked a mineral sharing and production agreement with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for an area of about 648 hectares in Carmen’s contract area in Toledo. Atlas earlier raised $140 million for its unit’s rehabilitation activities through loans from Deutsche Bank and Crescent Asian Special Opportunities Portfolio.