SEC okays Philex Mining property, cash dividends

MANILA, Philippines - Philex Mining Corp. has obtained the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval to declare property and cash dividends.

Philex will issue shares of stock in Philex Petroleum Corp. (PPC) at the rate of one PPC share for every eight shares of Philex and cash of P0.052 for each share of the company.

 In lieu of the PPC shares, US-based shareholders will receive cash of P0.96 per PPC share. The record date of the dividend was June 8. Payment date will be five trading days from the date the requisite SEC approvals are obtained.

Philex will keep a 64-percent stake in PPC after the dividend payment. PPFC, the oil exploration unit of Philex, earlier said it is planning to list 1.7 billion shares on the second board of the stock exchange.

PPC controls Forum Energy Plc., a UK company that has a 70-percent interest in Service Contract 72 covering the Sampaguita natural gas discovery, as well as participating interests in various petroleum service contracts.

PPC also owns 18.46 percent of Pitkin Petroleum Plc., 10.31 percent of PetroEnergy Resources Corp., and 100 percent of Brixton Energy & Mining Corp., a coal mining company operating in Northern Mindanao. PPC also holds overriding royalty interest in SC 6 (Cadlao) and a 70-percent interest in SC 6A (Octon).

Philex earlier reported that the value of its mineral output from its Padcal mine in Benguet jumped 60 percent in the first five months of the year to P6.72 billion.

Higher metal prices and better ore grades helped boost the value of its shipments by 44 percent to P4.72 billion from P3.28 billion a year earlier.

The mine has produced 3.85 million dry metric tons (DMT) of ore compared to 3.61 million DMT last year while shipments amounted to 20,150 DMT of concentrates as against 20,084 DMT in the first five months of 2010.