News

April 23, 2008

With Lepanto On Its Doorstep, Bezant Resources Has A Wealth Of Options For Its Mankayan Copper-Gold Project

By Alastair Ford

It’s not just recently that Chinese business interests have been moving into the Philippines in a big way. Back in the 12th century, Chinese traders were buying copper ingots produced from the working mines in the neighbourhood of Mankayan, now in the district of Benguet. Later came the Spanish, this time with guns and religion rather than in the spirit of trade, but Mankayan was important to them too, and became their principal source of metal in the region.

Modern mining started in 1936, with the formation of the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company, which is still in existence and publicly listed on the Filipino stock exchange. There was a brief interlude during the war, when the Japanese, in the shape of Mitsui Corporation took it over, but ownership reverted, and one way or another it’s been worked ever since. Since the war it has produced over 700,000 tonnes of refined copper, 2.8 million ounces of gold, and 12 million ounces of silver....