By IRMA ISIP

Board of Investments managing head Elmer C. Hernandez said that foreign interest on nickel mining remains high specially in setting up refineries either in Palawan or Mindanao.

Refined nickel fetches higher price in the world market.

Hernandez said that he has received queries from investors interested on the bright prospects of nickel mining and refinery.

He said integration would upgrade the status of the Philippines as exporter of beneficiated nickel ore, a semi-processed raw material, into a supplier of high value, processed nickel, which fetches higher prices.

A nickel refinery, Hernandez said, costs about $500 million to $1 billion but refused to identify the prospective investors.

"Nickel ore resources in areas like Palawan, Surigao, Mindoro and Zamboanga would justify the refineries. Demand for industrial metals is driven by India and China. Gold is particularly attractive because it is used to hedge against the weak dollar," Hernandez added.

The BOI is confident that after chalking up investments of P13 billion in 2007, mining would be one of the largest contributors.

Rising metal prices in the world market as well as the increasing appetite of China and India for minerals are sending signals to investors to bet their money in resource-rich Philippines despite the huge investment cost required, he said.

At the same time, the P13 billion worth of investments registered in 2007 is just a drop in the bucket of the $6 billion expected investments between 2006 and 2009 in mining and only three of the 24 priority large-scale mining projects identified by the Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau have been registered last year with the BOI.

Hernandez hinted the possibility of the revival of some mines as well but refused to give details.

He said back in the 1990s, Far Southeast Gold Resources Inc. owned by Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corp., which was reputed to be one of the largest mine in the world had planned to operate a P6.67 billion copper and gold production in Benguet but the project never took off.