International Pursuit buys Bigacon mill in Philippines

Should the Hinoba-an porphyry copper property in the Philippines be approved for production, an on-site mill will be ready to process the ore.

International Pursuit (TSE), which holds an option to acquire the Negros Island property outright from Adex Mining (TSE) subsidiary Tequila Copper, has signed an agreement allowing its Philippine subsidiary to buy the Bigacon mill from local mining firm Atlas Consolidated Mining & Development.

The mill, which is on the nearby island of Cebu, will be relocated to the Hinoba-an property if, and when, a decision is made to mine the deposit.

The agreement gives Pursuit an exclusive option to buy the mill from Atlas for a nonrefundable US$100,000 deposit and (subject to completing satisfactory due diligence) payments totalling US$5 million over a 1-year period. By comparison, Pursuit estimates the cost of acquiring new mill equipment at US$50 million.

The Atlas mill averaged close to 30,000 tons of ore per day over a 22-year period.

The Mina Don Jose deposit on the Hinoba-an property contains proven and probable reserves in excess of 100 million tons grading 0.45% copper.

Pursuit has also started drilling the Hinoba-an’s “A1” anomaly, from which old drill holes and channel sampling have shown lengths of up to 250 metres grading higher than 1% copper. Pursuit will also be testing the core for gold, silver and molybdenum.