The project was among the big-ticket projects approved by the Board of Investment late last year.

The BOI approved Carmen Copper on a non-pioneer status without prejudice to upgrading it to pioneer once it is established that the project will be utilizing a pioneering technology that is not yet utilized in the country or utilized but not on a commercial basis.

For the Carmen Copper to the classified as a pioneer project, it needs an endorsement from the Department of Science and Technology certifying that it is using a technology that is not yet used in the Philippines.

Based on its BOI application, Carmen Copper will carry out the rehabilitation of the mine facilities, mill plant and infrastructure. The firm will also construct a new land-based tailings disposal system, pier and concentrate loading facilities.

Once fully operational, the mine’s potential yield is placed at 15.205 million dried metric ton per year of copper ore.

The rehabilitated mine is expected to start full commercial operation in November this year employing a total of 3,455 workers.

A mining expert said that rehabilitating and reoping of the Toledo mine is a very challenging project because the underground mines have been under water.

"Re-opening the mine is a very challenging task because of technical issues, like how to dewater the mine," the industry expert said.

The plan of Carmen Copper is to undertake an open-pit mining first before going for an underground mine.

Employing the open pit method of mining is very expensive because the holing cost becomes higher as you dig deeper but since metal prices are its peak, this would ease up the huge expenditures.

To date, copper price now hovers at $ 2.87 per pound as against $ 1 when the mine was closed.

In a disclosure, the publicly-listed Atlas Mining said it had tapped Deutsche Bank Ag to arrange a $ 100-million loan facility that will be guaranteed by the Philippine Export-Import Credit Agency.

Atlas and Deutsche Bank hope to complete due-diligence review and documentation relating to the loan by February.

Formerly controlled by the Andres Soriano Corp., which used to run bluechip firms San Miguel Corp. and integrated paper manufacturer Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines, the Toledo mines was later sold to Atlas Mining of the Alfredo Ramos Group, which also owns National Bookstore, the country’s biggest bookstore chain.

The mining firm later fell under the control of its creditors in 1994.

Its closure was prompted by heavy overhead costs and the low prices of copper in the world market caught up with its huge copper ore inventory.

Philippine mining has been gaining foreign investor interest after the Supreme Court upheld the Mining Law that allows full foreign ownership in large scale mining projects.