East Otago miner Oceana Gold has rejected claims it is "going it alone" financially with its mothballed Philippines gold/copper project, but says it is still considering its options as geotechnical studies continue.
Oceana mothballed its Didipio gold/copper development in the northern Philippines in June last year, having spent about $US120 million ($NZ170 million), when its projected costs doubled to $US320 million.
For the past 14 months, Oceana trawled the world unsuccessfully seeking $US185 million from financial backers to reactivate the project.
Reports during the past few days by financial news services have quoted a senior Philippines-based Oceana executive saying because of the high price of gold and successful New Zealand operations, the company was able to restart Didipio on its own.
However, when Oceana vice-president of corporate and investor relations Darren Klinck was contacted in Melbourne, he rejected the reports, saying while gold and copper prices were high, they would not be used to underpin a 10-year mine plan.
"We are continuing to evaluate options for the project, and the stronger metals environment is resulting in more interest.
But we will not be finalising our approach on this until the board has evaluated the technical studies, which are currently under way," Mr Klinck said.
A cashless merger with Sydney-based Climax in mid-2006 gave Oceana the Philippines development project, propelling it into the lower end of the major-mining tier with a market capitalisation of more than $A500 million ($NZ613 million).
However, despite the $US120 million development work undertaken since then, analysts were less than enthusiastic about Oceana's foray into the Philippines and the political risk involved.
Although hundreds of sharemarket floats and rights issues occurred before the credit crunch, they had since reduced to a trickle as banks and institutional investors became risk averse.
Gold's surge to beyond $US1000 on several trading days during recent weeks has, however, rekindled some investor interest and underpinned the share-price gains of producers.
