Abacus sets plan to boost mining unit

Higher gold prices have prompted listed holding firm Abacus Consolidated Resources & Holdings Inc. to ramp up gold exploration activities in its Northern Mindanao site, eyeing to start full production by 2013.

Abacus corporate secretary Joaquin San Diego told the BusinessMirror that the company has restarted talks with various investors for the possibility of further investing an estimated $3 million to $5 million to bring the mine to full operations.

He declined to name the interested parties, only saying that these are a mix of local and foreign investors.

This follows the recovery of gold prices, which ended last year at above $1,200 per ounce from $900 per ounce in early 2009.

“For a time, the recession set the [plans] back considerably but now [several parties] have showed interest [and] have put their plans back,” said San Diego in a phone interview. “Given [the current] gold prices, it is going to be viable from a business point of view,” he added.

The holding firm’s gold mining activities are under wholly owned subsidiary Abacus Goldmines Exploration and Development Corp., which remains in the pre-operating stage.

As part of the plan, San Diego said the holding firm is open to giving up 40-percent ownership in Abacus Goldmines. This will allow the new partner to handle the management and operations of the mining venture.

“This will be an operating partner [but] nothing has been signed yet,” added San Diego.

Abacus holds 102 gold mining claims in Agusan del Sur and Surigao del Sur, and seven coal mining blocks—each containing 1,000 hectares— in Surigao del Sur.

The holding firm, which is also involved in the real estate and financial services sectors, remains open to other business opportunities, said San Diego.

The company had recently submitted a proposal for a joint venture to build the 100-kilometer natural gas pipeline from Batangas to Manila. San Diego said the proposal, submitted to the Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp., is still under evaluation.

This will be funded by the sale of Abacus’s 18.23-percent stake in listed lotto provider Pacific Online Systems Corp. which the firm “hopes” will be completed by the first quarter this year.

The parent company of Abacus, Blue Stock Development Holdings, acquired on Wednesday a 15.10-percent stake in listed real estate and mining firm ATN Holdings Inc.

San Diego, who also sits as corporate secretary of Blue Stock, said the shares—composed of  20.75 million A shares and 47.24 B shares—were valued at market value.

This values the buy-in at P562.07 million, while ensuring Blue Stock of at least a board seat in ATN. He said there is no plan for now to increase the stake of Abacus in ATN. 

“It’s mainly we like the company and we will probably would want to do something more with it,” noted San Diego.

Shares of Abacus lost 3.57 percent to end Wednesday’s session at P0.81 apiece. (Businessmirror)