Philex Mining Corporation reported that the value of its shipment for November jumped 36.3 percent to P838 million compared to the P615 million worth of concentrate of about the same tonnage shipped in the same month last year as metal prices rose in the world market.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Philex president Jose Ernesto Villaluna Jr. said the shipment’s value is based on provisional metal prices consisting of P438 million from gold, P392 million from copper and P7 million from silver.

The latest shipment brings total estimated value of Philex shipments in the first 11 months of the year to P8.6 billion as world metal prices continue to recover. The value of the firm’s monthly shipments has been steadily rising since the start of the year.

The firm shipped 5,027 dry metric tons of concentrates from its Padcal copper-gold mine containing about 8,177 ounces of gold, 2.71 million pounds of copper, and 8,647 ounces of silver last month.

In November last year, Philex shipped 5,042 DMT of concentrates containing 10,445 ounces of gold and 2.7 million pounds of silver. The firm did not report the value of the small silver content of last year’s shipments.

Philex has announced that its Padcal mine's projected operating life has been extended by another three years, from the previously declared 2014 to 2017, based on the proved reserves of the mine as of June 30, 2009.

The firm said the Padcal mine has reserves of 74 million tons, at assumed metal prices of $800 per ounce of gold and $2.00 per pound of copper and at copper equivalent cut-off of 0.36 percent.

Philex has also doubled its budgeted net income for 2009 to P3 billion from P1.5 billion, from profits of P2.8 billion earned in 2008, on the back of stronger gold and copper prices.

The firm is also ramping up exploration activities in its Bayugo prospect in Tubod, Surigao del Norte after initial mineral resource estimate showed 85.7 million dry metric tons (dmt) of indicated resource and 32.7 million dmt of inferred resource.

Villaluna said the Bayugo mineral deposit is a porphyry-hosted copper gold occurrence in an island-arc setting, located within areas covered by MPSA 149 and EP13 and about one kilometer northwest of the Boyongan copper gold deposit.

Boyongan and Bayugo are within the Silangan property in which Philex has a 50 percent interest (purchased earlier from Anglo American) and the other 50 percent is held by 81 percent-owned Canadian unit Philex Gold Inc.

Philex said external consultants of Philex Gold and in-house geologists of Philex Mining have estimated a cut-off grade of 0.4 percent copper based on drilling and assay results from 43 exploration holes available on September 30, 2009.

The Bayugo deposit is now comparable to the Boyongan deposit, which was previously announced at 104 million dmt of Measured and 19.8 million dmt of Inferred resource.