Celsius Resources Limited. is pleased to announce the extension of the exploration permit for the Sagay Copper Project, held under its Philippine subsidiary, Tambuli Mining Company, Inc (“TMCI”) located on the Island of Negros in the Philippines.
The extension of EP-000003-VI was issued on 1 April 2024 and was based on Section 30 of the Department Administrative Order No. 2010-211 , which states that “the exploration permit shall be deemed automatically extended in case it expires prior to the approval of the Declaration of Mining Project Feasibility (“DMPF”) and until such time that a mineral agreement is approved”.
The Sagay Project’s DMPF application submitted to the Philippine Mines and Geosciences Bureau (“MGB”) has been accepted and is currently under review. The approval of said application will consequently allow TMCI to apply for a mineral agreement with the Philippine Government (see CLA Announcement dated 8 January 2024).
Celsius Resources Executive Chairman, Atty. Julito “Sarge” Sarmiento said:
“We are in the process of completing the Environmental Impact Assessment for the Sagay Project as the basis for the issuance of an Environmental Compliance Certificate which is one of the key requirements for the approval of the DMPF. We are taking every step to ensure that we have comprehensively covered all potential environmental impacts of the proposed Project with avoidance, protection and prevention as top of mind approaches, and that any residual impacts are minimised and managed. Environmental stewardship will always be at the forefront of our business operations.
As with our Maalinao-Caigutan-Biyog project (“MCB Project”), we will continue to adhere with the Philippine Government’s regulatory permitting requirements to ensure the safe development and operations of the Sagay Project.”
The extended term of the exploration permit for Sagay is limited to comply with the requirements of the DMPF and further updates will be provided to shareholders as TMCI moves through the approval process.
THE SAGAY COPPER-GOLD PROJECT
Location
The Sagay Copper Project is located in the north-eastern part of Negros Island, within the cities of Sagay and Escalante in the Province of Negros Occidental, Philippines (Figure 1). Negros Island is part of the central group of Islands in the Philippines commonly referred to as “the Visayas”.
Drilling at Sagay has broadly defined a large-scale copper mineralisation which is interpreted to be a typical porphyry copper style of mineralisation, common throughout the Philippine archipelago.
An updated Mineral Resource Estimate (“MRE”) was announced to ASX on 6 February 2024 comprising of a combined measured, indicated, and inferred Mineral Resource of 312 million tonnes @ 0.39% copper and 0.11 g/t gold.
