TVI Pacific's PHL unit gets nod to operate gold-silver Balabag project

The provincial government of Zamboanga del Sur has passed a resolution allowing TVI Resource Development (Phils.) Inc. (TVIRD) to operate its gold-silver project in Sitio Balabag, the company said over the weekend. TVIRD, a unit of the Canadian miner TVI Pacific Inc., said that the province's Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) approved resolution No. 2K13-1151, authored by council member Edward Pintac, after studying TVIRD's copper-zinc project in Sitio Canatuan, Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte. The company will decommission the Canatuan mine this year, but will still make shipments from the mine in the fourth quarter of the year. It plans to start operations in Balabag, where it holds a mineral production sharing agreement covering 4,779 hectares, in 2014. The site is expected to produce about 50,000 ounces of gold a year. TVI Pacific reported a net loss of $0.6 million in the first quarter of 2013 compared to a net loss of $2.3 million in Q1 2012. The company attributed the recent loss to the decline in world copper  net loss was incurred during the first three months of 2013 was attributed to the 6-percent decline in average world copper prices to $3.62 per pound. — BM, GMA News