Philex buys stake in Texas oil firm

Philex Mining Corp., the country’s biggest miner by market value, has acquired a 4.4-percent stake in Pitkin Petroleum Ltd., a Texas-based oil exploration company, for $2 million.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Philex said the move was in line with its thrust to increase its portfolio in petroenergy. This investment would comprise 51 percent of the company’s current oil assets.

Pitkin is producing on a small-scale basis in Louisiana but also has properties in offshore Vietnam and Peru.

“The drilling in Vietnam is scheduled to commence in 2009 where Pitkin is 40-percent carried for two wells costing about $53 million, with a partner in the United Kingdom with $2 billion in market capitalization,” Philex said.

Philex currently has interests in three other petroleum projects in Northwest Palawan and South Sulu Sea areas. Brixton Energy and Mining Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Philex, is also doing pre-development activities in a coal property in Southern Zamboanga.

The company earlier said it may spend as much as $1 billion with partner Anglo American Plc to develop the Boyongan copper-gold site if mining the property is found to be feasible. A feasibility study for the site would take three years to complete.

With the increasing prices of minerals and metals worldwide, Philex expects its production this year to increase to 120,000 ounces of gold and 40 million pounds of copper.

Philex also plans to acquire additional mining properties to sustain production.