Atlas makes first shipment of nickel ore to China
ATLAS Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. said it had made its first shipment of nickel ore to China, sending 19,000 metric tons from its Berong mines in the western province of Palawan.
“This is a trial phase. This is the first shipment of laterite nickel ore that departed from the Berong anchorage,” Atlas president Alfredo Ramos said.
Ramos said about 100,000 metric tons of laterite nickel ore were stockpiled and ready for shipment.
He said the mining and hauling of the ore was running at the planned rate of 2,000 metric tons per day and this rate would be gradually increased to 4,000 metric tons a day.
Last year, Berong Nickel Corp., a joint venture unit of Atlas with London-based Toledo Mining Corp. and Australia’s Investika Ltd., got a permit to start full-scale commercial mining of laterite nickel ore from the Berong mines.
Ramos earlier said that once commercial operations started, Berong Nickel Corp. would export about one million metric tons of ore this year and 1.5 million metric tons in 2008.
With INQUIRER.net
Copyright 2007 Xinhua Financial News Service.
