After completing feasibility study of the Adlay, Carrascal project in Surigao del Sur and Brgy. Cagdianao in Claver, Surigao del Norte, company officials confirmed SIRC is conducting preparatory work for the construction.

Geotechnical drilling and detailed topographic survey have so far been completed while the company is set to tap an environment consultant to study the impact on corals of the construction of a proposed wharf.

The Adlay project was estimated to contain six million metric tons of ore at a nickel grade of 1.6 percent and which is estimated to have an annual production capacity of 5,000 MT.

The ore was originally intended to be shipped to the Queensland Nickel Yabulu nickel refinery in Townsville in Queensland, Australia which can produce 30,000 tons of nickel and 2,000 tons of cobalt a year. The Yabulu plant depends mainly on imported raw materials for its feed.

While construction of the infrastructure for mining production is set by July, Ausenco Ltd., a mining engineering and construction consultancy firm, is reviewing the project’s implementation and will determine final construction schedule.

SIRC has already started implementing environment-related and community projects in the Surigao site having planted 14,500 acacia mangium trees within the buffer zones surrounding the mine development areas.

Roland A. de Jesus, Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) mining technology chief, said SIRC has also signed a partnership agreement with Gawad Kalinga for the construction of houses of residents within the Surigao del Sur mining area.

In order to pursue construction, the company is now settling land rights under its Mineral Production Sharing Agreement even as SIRC intends to develop infrastructure in these areas once the local government unit issues real property tax declarations over these claims.

The company is also resolving problems on access to the proposed ore deposit cutting through the MPSA area of Claver Mineral Development Corp. , according to SIRC President Honorio E. Tolentino in a letter to MGB.

Likewise being undertaken in the project are the clearing of newly completed Kinalablaban Bridge and the completion of the road to the national highway, stabilization of power supply to the project site; and revision of the design of the load port into a wharf to allow longer term use even after the project’s mine life.