http://www.mb.com.ph/BSNS2006091174086.html
By MELODY M. AGUIBA

Rio Tinto, world’s second largest iron producer, aims to make a comeback in the local mining scene while a Toronto-based firm eyes to put up an integrated nickel plant in light of Philippines’ encouraging mining policies.

Rio Tinto, which was in the country exploring mineral areas in the late 1990s, has expressed interest to return, seeking copper and gold exploration sites prospectively in Southern Philippines. Attractive mineralogy is present in the Surigao mining district and in gold-copper prospects in Compostela Valley in Mindanao.

“We’re trying to look for opportunities. We’re positive about developments and the improved mining policies. We’re seeing support from the government and we’re encouraged by the positive outlook. We came to see if the situation has changed,” said said Jeanette dela Cruz, official of Rio Tinto Ltd- Philippine representative in an interview.

Another company, CVMR, is interested in putting up an integrated operations that will produce not only nickel but also a product that involves value-adding, nickel brickets, according to a government official. The investment will involve $ 3 billion so as to produce an estimated 60,000 metric tons (MT) of nickel brickets yearly.

“CVMR has a plant in China. They’ve been here one year ago, trying to seek agreements with claim owners in Palawan,” the official said.

CVMR may turn out to be one of the first to construct an integrated mineral plant in the country even as government aims to encourage value-adding in minerals to maximize its earning and employment potentials. At present, the country’s minerals are generally exported in the form of raw material copper, gold, or nickel ore rather than in more value-added, higher-priced form.

Despite its avid interest to conduct serious mineral exploration, Rio Tinto’s decision to invest in the country depends on several factors.

“Everyone is interested in copper, gold, and nickel. Our decision to invest will depend on government (registration processes) and our own resources. It takes time to study areas of mining interest,” said dela Cruz.

Before it bought the North Ltd of Australia in 2000, Rio Tinto was already producing more than 50 million MT yearly of iron ore, a raw material more used for steel in combination with carbon and other metals used in building bridges, railways, skyscrapers, cars, trains, engines, machines, and simple devices like bolts and nuts.

Also listed in the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges and on the Euronext, DEutsche Borse, and the New York Exchange as an American Depositary Receipt (ADR), Rio Tinto was exploring in 30 countries for coppergold, industrial minerals, bauxite, iron ore, gold in 30 countries as of 2003, employing 189 geologists and geophysicists.

For copper, its interest is in Escondida, Chile; Grasberg, Indonesia; Northparkes, Australia; and Palabora, South Africa. The company’s industrial minerals group, employing about 7,000 in 2003, produces borates, industrial salt, talc, titanium dioxide feedstock.

It owns Hamersley Iron in Western Australia which has interest in five mines including 60 percent of the Channar mine, a joint venture with an Australian subsidiary of the China Iron and Steel Industry and Trade Group Corp. It also owns 50 percent of the Eastern Range mine, a joint venture with Shanghai Baosteel Group Corp.

Its iron group likewise owns 53 percent of Robe River Iron Associates’ two mines in Western Australia, 59 percent in Iron Ore Co. of Canada, and it holds the registered Hismelt direct iron smelting technology developed in Western Australia.