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MANILA, Philippines — Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation is investing $105 million to upgrade the mine facilities and boost copper production of its operating subsidiary Carmen Copper Corporation (CCC).

In an interview, Atlas executive vice-president Adrian Ramos said that at least $50 million is allotted for the upgrading of its milling facility, $30 million for the optimization of its operations, and another $25 million for the upgrading of its mine fleet to deliver the copper ore.

“The upgrading of the facilities would help the company increase production to 10 million pounds of copper concentrates per month or roughly 120 million pounds per year,” Ramos said.

At present, CCC is milling around 7 to 7.5 million pounds of copper ore per month in its Toledo mine in Cebu.

He said CCC’s expansion program is already ahead of schedule by around 12 months. “We expect the new milling facility to commence operations by end of the first quarter or early second quarter of 2013,” Ramos said.

Atlas has recently purchased two brand new ball mills that will increase CCC’s processing capacity from 40,000 tons of copper ore per day to 60,000 tons of copper ore per day.

The two six-megawatt ball mills, along with complementary flotation equipment, will be delivered to CCC by Outotex of Finland, which is considered as a global leader in minerals and metals processing technology.

“The enhanced processing plant is expected to significantly increase copper concentrate production in 2013 and optimize copper recoveries,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ramos said they are now in various stages of exploring some 4,000 hectares of tenements surrounding Toledo mine. “These are highly mineralized areas,” he said.

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Source: James Loyola, Manila Bulletin (22 August 2012)

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