Macroasia Corporation is working to put its Palawan nickel mine into operation before the end of the year with the intention of exporting as much as one million metric tons of nickel laterite annually.

In an interview, Macroasia president Joseph T. Chua said they have submitted with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) the documents needed for the issuance of the environmental compliance certificate.

"We have already received endorsements for our operations from the local government units, from three beneficiary barangays where our project is located, the municipality of Brooke's Point and the Province of Palawan,” Chua said.

He added that “the indigenous communities that will benefit largely from this project also have given us their free and prior informed consent. We are now in the final stage of securing our Environment Compliance Certificate (ECC)."

Chua said that operation of the mine may start "three months after the ECC is granted." The standard procedure for the DENR is to facilitate the release of an ECC 20 days after the application was filed, provided that all papers are in order.

The area was mined by Japanese firm Sumitomo in the 1970s, generating three shipment before it closed. Chua said the rehabilitation of the mine could be easily done, particularly with the road network already in place.

Last June, Macroasia had started setting up facilities, road rehabilitation as well as construction of the port facility and causeway for the project.

The minesite is a 1,114 hectares nickle-rich land with an estimated 11 million dry metric tones of “measured resources,” for just about half of the property. The rest is still up for exploration.

Chua said the company has already spent P200 million for the exploration alone, though he declined to provide an estimate of how much more is needed to get to the operational stage.