Six Properties Under Review – Confidentiality Agreements Signed
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Six Properties Under Review – Confidentiality Agreements Signed
Evaluating Advanced-stage Copper-Gold and/or Polymetallic Development Projects and/or Deposits
TVI Pacific Inc. (TSX: “TVI” or the “Company”) announced today that its Philippine affiliate, TVI Resource Development Phils Inc (“TVIRD”), has signed Confidentiality Agreements with six organizations concerning assets in the Philippines that TVIRD wishes to evaluate for possible acquisition. TVIRD’s 2007 Philippine business plan contemplates consideration of third-party acquisition opportunities involving advanced stage gold/copper and/or polymetallic development projects and/or a large copper-gold or gold deposit.
The six companies that have entered into confidentiality agreements with TVIRD include Philippine-listed firms United Paragon Mining Corporation and Vulcan Industrial Mining Corporation, both of which have disclosed their respective confidentiality agreements with TVIRD to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Data review and field investigations on the acquisition targets have been initiated. Formal due diligence reviews have been scheduled for early 2007.
The Board of Directors of TVI has authorized management to explore acquisition opportunities in the Philippines and has identified various characteristics that target assets should possess in order to be considered. Those characteristics include large polymetallic and/or gold deposits having reserves or resources in excess of 500,000 ounces (oz) of gold equivalent (AuEq). As well, any targeted project should be sufficiently advanced to permit a production decision to be made within one to four years of acquisition. Other characteristics include prospective annual production capacity in excess of 80,000 oz AuEq per year, and operating costs of less than US$300/oz AuEq.
TVIRD is also interested in acquiring a property with large-scale porphyry copper-gold deposits.
“Based on our platform at Canatuan, including the recently announced Sulphide (Copper/Zinc) Expansion Project, we are now aggressively evaluating acquisition opportunities,” said Cliff James, TVI’s President and CEO. “We believe that the Philippines has significant undeveloped mining potential; and we have confidence in the Government’s Mining Revitalization commitment, as well as the political and economic turnaround taking place in the country.”
About TVI Pacific Inc. (TSX: TVI)
TVI Pacific Inc. is a publicly traded Canadian mining company focused on exploring for and producing precious and base metals within district scale systems in Asia.
In the Philippines, TVI’s most advanced project, the Canatuan Mine (the first foreign-invested, new, mining project in the Philippines since the passage of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995) began mining and milling operations in mid-2004, producing gold and silver dor??. In 2006, TVI received a completed NI 43-101 feasibility study on the Canatuan Sulphide project prepared by Norwest Corporation. The report has been filed with certain securities regulatory authorities in Canada and is available at the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. The Norwest study addresses the copper-zinc bearing massive sulphide zone, or lower portion of the Canatuan Deposit. Construction of the Sulphide Project at Canatuan is now underway. In addition, TVI holds a 2.5% NSR on the Philippine-based Rapu Rapu project operated by Lafayette Mining Ltd. Exploration in the Philippines is being conducted at Canatuan, in an effort to expand TVI’s mineral resource base and to find new deposits, at Balabag and at other areas which management of TVI view as compelling exploration properties.
In China, TVI’s wholly-owned Chinese subsidiary, Hunan Pacific Geological Exploration Inc. (“HPGEI”), was the first foreign mining company to be granted both WOFE status and a Qualified Explorer License. The exploration program in China is focused primarily within the Golden Triangle area, a highly prospective metallogenic region in China’s south-western provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi Autonomous Region and prospective areas in the Tibet Autonomous Region. HPGEI has 2,394 sq kms of land under application in China in the Golden Triangle and in the Tibet A.R.
TVI also has a Drilling Segment consisting of Exploration Drilling Corporation (“EDCO”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of TVI Pacific Inc. based in the Philippines, and Hunan Pacific Drilling (“HPD”), a segment of HPGEI based in China, which generates revenue from contract drilling.