Atlas Unit Secures Govt Guarantee For Rehab Loan

Atlas unit secures govt guarantee for rehab loan

By Darwin G. Amojelar, Manila Times

29th May 2007

CARMEN Copper Corp., the subsidiary of listed Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. has secured a loan from Deustche Bank for the rehabilitation of its mine in Toledo City in Cebu province.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Atlas Mining said Carmen Copper has signed a $100-million term loan facility agreement with Deutsche Bank that shall be guaranteed by state-run Philippine Export-lmport Credit Agency (Philexim).

Carmen Copper expects closing requirements to be completed and the loan drawn down within the next thirty days.

Recently, the company completed a three-month pre-rehabilitation program which included structural repairs on key facilities at the Carmen mine site such as the 42,000 tons per day copper concentrator plant, as well as the purchase of a new fleet of open-pit mining equipment composed of trucks, excavators and bulldozers.

"Production of copper concentrates is expected within 11 months from the start of full rehabilitation, building up to an average annual production of 47,000 tons of copper in concentrate, 41,000 ounces of gold, 135,000 tons of pyrite concentrate and 419,000 tons of magnetite iron ore concentrate," the company said.

The Carmen mine has remaining copper ore resources of 874 million tons as well as an estimated 1.2 billion tons of ore previously classified as waste. >From 1955 to 1994, Atlas mined 667 million tons of copper ore from which it produced 5.6 million tons of copper, 1.96 million ounces of gold and 7.2 million ounces of silver in high quality concentrate.

The Carmen mine forms part of Atlas Mining's larger mineral property protect portfolio covering 48,305 hectares within the Philippines.