DMCI Mining Corp., a unit of publicly listed DMCI Holdings Inc., on Thursday said it sees a tough year ahead even with the lifting of the suspension of one of its nickel assets, Berong Nickel Corp., last November.
“We will be shipping mostly lower-grade nickel, which fetches a lower price in the market. Our inventory is also nearly depleted,” DMCI Mining President Cesar F. Simbulan Jr. said.
Last year, DMCI Mining shipped 643,000 wet metric tons of nickel ore, a 22-percent improvement from the 525,000 WMT it shipped the previous year. Average nickel grade of the shipments stood at 1.7 percent, up 13 percent year-on-year from 1.51 percent. This year, the company expects to ship nickel ore with an average grade of 1.57 percent. DMCI Mining said it is still working on the reopening of its other nickel asset, Zambales Diversified Metals Corp. (ZDMC).
In an order dated November 15, 2018, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) partially granted ZDMC’s motion for reconsideration by modifying its earlier closure order to just a suspension order on its operations, production and shipment.
The DENR declared ZDMC may be permitted to operate again once it meets certain conditions, which include continued rehabilitation and reforestation of the mine site, as well as management of environmental structures in the area. DMCI said its unit has since submitted its action plan to address those conditions.
On a stand-alone basis, DMCI Mining recorded a 93-percent surge in net income to P190 million last year from P99 million in 2017.