Monday, April 1, 2013

Coal Asia upgrades davao reserve estimate


Manila Bulletin By James A. LoyolaPublished: April 1, 2013

Coal Asia Holdings, Inc. reported that it has updated the evaluation of its mineable coal reserves within 400 hectares of its Coal Operating Contract (COC) area in Davao Oriental showing an enterprise value of P4.1 billion.
In a statement, the firm said the 400 hectares is equal to just 3 percent of the total coal concession area of 13,000 hectares.
“Given the results of this latest study, it appears that Coal Asia is well on its way to exceeding an earlier independent valuation by Multinational Investment Bancorporation (MIB) which had valued the company at P12.5 billion considering the entire 13,000 hectares in Davao Oriental and Zamboanga Sibugay,” the firm said.
Specifically called the Bactinan and Macopa coal mine deposits, these areas are two of eleven coal bearing basins that have been identified in COC 159 in Davao Oriental.
In a disclosure filed with the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), COAL’s subsidiary Titan Mining & Energy Corporation (TMEC) said it commissioned a full feasibility study thru an independent third-party consultant to reevaluate the Bactinan and Macopa coal deposits respectively.
The updated study confirms Titan’s coal proven reserves stands at 5 million metric tons (MT) which is just a fraction of the whole 123 million MT resource and reserve figure identified in the Philippine Mineral Reporting Code standard geological report done in April 2012.
These two blocks were the same subject of the preliminary feasibility study done in June 2012. Actual commercial production for these two sites will commence in the fourth quarter of this year and is projected to generate 500,000 MT in the first full year of operations.
In terms of mine life, the two sites that comprise the study has tenure of at least 10 years. But, once all of the 11 coal basins have been explored and mined as pairs at any given time, the mine life will easily exceed 50 years.
Coal Asia chairman Harald Tomintz said he is satisfied with the positive results of the feasibility study and how it translates to the company’s valuation.
“Despite the recent volatility of coal prices, the key financial indicators of the Bactinan and Macopa coal deposits, as determined by the feasibility study, speak volumes of the lucrative nature of this project,” he said.
Tomintz noted that “the valuation of the Bactinan and Macopa deposits alone already represents 103 percent of Coal Asia’s current market capitalization. And this is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak..”
He added that “there are over 6,000 hectares from the Zamboanga Sibugay site and the remaining 6,600 hectares from the Davao Oriental site. And to add to that, the effective mine life of the whole lot is equal to 50 years. This is not the end of the good news, rather just the beginning.”   source

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