Image via WikipediaMANILA, Philippines - Publicly-listed PNOC-Exploration Corp. will start raising funds for its $100-million coal mine-mouth project within the year, a company official said.
“Yes, most likely we will borrow money to fund the project,” Rolly Oliquino Jr., PNOC-EC project officer, said in a press briefing yesterday.
He said the company is also in exploratory talks with three groups which have expressed keen interest in the project. He, however, declined to identify the investor groups.
He said they would likely take in a partner for the power plant project but may opt to do the mining component on its own.
The Department of Energy awarded Coal Operating Contract (COC) 122- Isabela coal mine and power plant project to PNOC-EC in December 1997.
Oliquino said if the project pushes through, this will be the first mine-mouth project in the Philippines. PNOC-EC is also the first to develop an onshore natural gas project in Isabela province.
The PNOC-EC project will involve a progressive mining rehabilitation method (PMRM) and a construction of an initial 50-megawatt circulating fluidized bed (CFB) coal-fired power plant in a 2,000-hectare land in Isabela.
COC 122 involved nine coal blocks with total land area of 9,000 hectares, straddling portion of the city of Cauayan and the municipalities of Naguilian and Benito Soliven, but only 2,000 hectares will be developed for the project.
Robert Francisco, another PNOC-EC project officer, explained that the PMRM is the first of its kind in the Philippines which will involve staged mining of relatively smaller areas followed immediately by rehabilitation as opposed to conventional open pit mining that involves large-scale mining activities and rehabilitation works only at the end of the mine life.
Donnabelle L. Gatdula
September 9, 2010
