British Miner Metals Exploration PLC expects to finish studies on its gold and molybdenum property in northern Luzon to finally start site development, company officials said late last week.

“$15 million has been allotted for the feasibility project and we are looking at completing it in end-2009,” Rizaldy G. Palomaria, chief geologist of FCF Minerals Corp., said in a presentation before officials of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.

Metals Exploration, through local unit FCF Minerals, has so far spent $8.52 million for exploration activities in the 3,091.30-hectare claim in the municipality of Quezon in Nueva Vizcaya since 2005.

The company is borrowing $11.8 million from Shelfco 735 Ltd., a sister company of shareholder and private equity fund Solomon Capital Ltd.

Metals Exploration expects to invest a total of $208 million to develop the mine and extract 183,000 ounces of gold and 1.7 million pounds of molybdenum, an industrial metal, per year, according to its pre-feasibility study.

The project has a mine life of nine years, with a potential for extension of up to 15 years with the exploration of additional ore reserves.

The company will increase its 325 workers to 1,000 during the one and a half to two-year development stage set to start late next year or early in 2011. Employment will drop to 600 during commercial operations.

Early last month, the Environment department forwarded to the Office of the President the company’s application for a Financial Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA).

FTAAs allow 100% foreign ownership in local mining projects.

In an interview, Metals Exploration Chief Operating Officer Peter Draper said his firm was interested in acquiring mining projects from the state-owned Philippine Mining Development Corp.

“We will have to look the portfolio that they will release [for bidding],” Mr. Draper said.

The state firm’s properties include a potential 20,000-hectare gold and copper mine in northern Davao and the 1,620-hectare Upper Ulip gold and copper property in the gold-rich Compostela Valley.

“We are not confined to gold. It is the best metal there is when it comes to current metal prices … but you have to have a long-term take at mining,” Mr. Draper told BusinessWorld.

The company will also explore this year its mining properties in Luzon.

MTL Philippines, Inc., another Metals Exploration subsidiary, has exploration permits covering 7,347 hectares and 6,971 hectares of potential gold and copper mines in the municipalities of Villaberde and Bababag in Nueva Vizcaya, respectively.

Meanwhile, Oslo-based Intex Resources ASA wants to secure an environmental permit and an endorsement from the local government in June to jump-start its nickel project in southern Luzon, said Intex Vice-President Manuel P. Dumdum.

The company will spend $3.155 million to put up a nickel processing plant and develop the 9,720-hectare mine in Mindoro Oriental and Occidental.

The mine, which is expected to produce 40,000 metric tons of nickel and 3,000 metric tons of cobalt per year, will double its output in the second development stage.

Intex will employ more than 5,000 workers during the construction phase and 2,000 during commercial operations.

The Philippines, which wants to attract $10 billion of investments to the mining sector by 2013, sits atop $1 trillion worth of unexplored gold, copper, nickel and zinc reserves.

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