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AsIA-PAcIFIc

Celsius lands big play

in Philippines

elsius Resources Ltd has a serious for the Philippines mining indus-
Cdrilling programme in play, however, try, with new mining leases to be
the company is far from an early-stage ex- granted and clarification to other
plorer in the Philippines. aspects of mining regulations.
The six-hole diamond drilling campaign Sergeant said Celsius was fully
under way at the company’s new flagship supportive of Duterte’s stance
copper-gold project – Maalinao-Caigutan- on enhanced environmental and
Biyog (MCB), 320km north of Manilla – is safety standards of all mining op-
focused on delivering on short-term devel- erations to ensure that people and
opment potential. host communities are afforded
Two of the diamond holes in particular greater protection.
will be key inputs of a scoping study on “The Philippines is made up of
MCB, planned for completion early in the some 2,000 islands, with a lot of
second half of 2021. communities autonomous. There
Having only completed acquisition of a is a lot to consider, and we hope
suite of copper-gold assets, including MCB to have a meaningful impact within
and Sagay, from UK company Anleck Ltd the communities we operate in,”
last year, Celsius is well positioned to un- Sergeant said.
dertake high-level studies following a posi- Despite over 20 years’ experi-
tive scoping study at MCB. ence in the mining sector and 10
A well supported $6 million equity place- years based in Johannesburg,
ment completed in April enables Celsius this is Sergeant’s first foray into
to complete drilling at MCB and deliver a the Philippines, and he is eager to
scoping study in July/August while also set foot on Celsius’ projects when
renewing the necessary permit at Sagay. conditions permit.
At MCB, a resource of 313mt @ 0.48% While Sergeant is new into the
copper and 0.15 g/t gold for 1.5mt con- Philippines, non-executive chair-
tained copper and 1.47 moz gold, includ- man Martin Buckingham is well
ing a high-grade core of 93.7mt @ 0.8% versed in the country’s copper
and 0.28 g/t for 664,000t and 780,000oz, sector having taken the lead in re-
exists with about 90% of the material in- opening the plus-40,000 tpa Car-
dicated. men copper mine in Cebu.
“We’re at pains to explain that this is not Shareholders will be hoping
an exploration project. Freeport [McMo- Buckingham can bring similar suc-
Ran] invested $45 million in this portfolio cess to Celsius and Sergeant is
with extensive drilling – 25,000m at MCB certain the company has the req-
and 22,000m at Sagay,” Celsius execu- uisite depth of experience in both Celsius’ first hole at MCB was continuing beyond
tive director, corporate, Blair Sergeant told country and commodity. the target depth of 600m at the time of print
Paydirt. “We have about 2,500 share-
“We won’t be far away from drilling at holders, the majority of who
Sagay and we are confident the permit will bought into the cobalt story – the
be renewed. We will do some exploration cobalt asset [Opuwo in Namibia]
on it, but it has already had 22,000m of which helped Celsius run to $150
drilling completed on it and looks as sig- million market cap is still there with
nificant as MCB. us,” Sergeant said.
“But our focus is on doing infill drilling at Opuwo remains within Celsius’
MCB, with the first two holes into the heart portfolio, which also includes the
of the mineralisation to improve the confi- Cullarin West gold project, New
dence we have in the resource.” South Wales, 30%-JV interest in
The current 4,000m maiden drilling pro- the Carnilya Hill nickel project with
gramme by Celsius is being undertaken Mincor Resources NL in Western
as the winds of change start to blow in the Australia and the Abednegno Hill
country’s mining sector. nickel project also in WA.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent de-
cree is seen as a positive development – Mark Andrews

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT JUNe 2021 Page 65