Apex exploring more gold deposits in Maco mines

MANILA, Philippines - LISTED APEX Mining Co., Inc. wants to conduct further explorations in a new gold vein at its mines in southern Mindanao, the company told the stock exchange on Friday. "There are positive and encouraging indications, including reports by earlier workers, that may justify further investigation by trenching and more preferably drilling [in the Sagaysagay gold vein]," said Apex, a unit of British miner Crew Gold Corp. Samples collected from the ore deposits at the the Maco mine in Compostela Valley yielded gold grades varying from 0.35 gram to 201.4 grams per metric ton. "Apex is encouraged to lend support and finance a more advanced exploration program in the Sagaysagay area," the company said. In December, Apex entered into a service contract with local miners to explore the Sagaysagay deposits. The discovery of the Sagaysagay vein in May attracted people from surrounding communities to flock to the area and conduct illegal small-scale mining activities. The potentials of the Sagaysagay deposit could not be conclusively assessed at this time, but more explorations could justify more funds to come up with some acceptable resource estimates, Apex said. Late last month, Apex laid off 150 of its 1,955 workers at the Maco gold mine in Southern Mindanao to rationalize operating and development costs. Apex projects to mine 6.389 million metric tons of ore with an average gold grade of 4.87% from the 1558.5-hectare gold mine. It hiked its milling rate to 700 from 500 metric tons daily early last month as it targets full capacity of the Maco mine at 1,000 metric tons per day by the end of the year. Crew Gold owns almost three-quarters of Apex. — Neil Jerome C. Morales, BusinessWorld