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OceanaGold Corp. [OGC-TSX, ASX] Shares rose on Monday, December 7, following news that the company has received positive proposals from the Philippine government that could lead to the restart of the company’s Didipio copper and gold mine.
The shares rose 30% or 54 cents to $ 2.36 on volume of 5.72 million. The stock is currently trading in a 52-week range of $ 4.01 and $ 1.16.
The Didipio mine is located on the island of Luzon and is subject to a Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) with the government of the Philippines, which grants titles, exploration and mining rights.
At full speed, the operation directly employs more than 1,500 workers, of whom 97% are Filipino citizens and 59% are from local communities. Didipio has a measured and indicated resource of 1.3 million ounces of gold and 160,000 tons of copper.
The company was notified that the Office of the President of the Philippines directed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to contract with the company and the Department of Finance to finalize the renewal of the FTAA. This follows the recent granting of a Certificate of Non-Overlap to the company which states that the FTAA area is outside the ancestral domain of Indigenous Cultural Communities / Indigenous Peoples.
Oceana Gold launched an offer to renew the 25-year permit in 2018. After it expired in June 2019, the company kept Didipio operating under a temporary license. However, a local government-backed lockdown forced the company to suspend operations a few weeks later.
The company applied for a court order in the Philippine Court of Appeals in July 2019 as a temporary measure to allow provisional operations of the Didipio Mine while challenging the legality of the order issued by the Governor of Nueva Vizcaya (where the mine is located). restrict activities pending the renewal of the FTAA.
OceanaGold said it had learned through social media that the Court of Appeals had denied the request for a court order.
The company implemented the permanent dismissal of 496 employees who, according to the company, were affected by the blockade of the public highway by the local government pending the renewal of the FTAA. In its press release on Monday, the company said its FTAA has strong support from residents of local communities near the Didipio mine, including indigenous peoples.
