OceanaGold Philippines (OGPI), a subsidiary of Vancouver-based OceanaGold, has filed a preliminary prospectus with the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to 7.9-billion pesos in an initial public offering.

OPGI, which holds OceanaGold’s interest in the Didipio mine, plans to offer up to 456-million shares, representing 20% of its total shares at 17.28 pesos a share.

In terms of a renewed financial technical assistance agreement, OPGI is required to list at least 10% of its common shares on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). Due to the PSE’s minimum public float requirement of 20%, OPGI intends to list all its issued and outstanding common shares and publicly float 20% thereof on the main board of the PSE.

The offering is expected to be completed before July, OceanaGold said in a statement.  

“We are proud of Didipio’s track record as a proven high-quality, long-life, low-cost gold-copper mine and look forward to welcoming new Filipino and international shareholders to participate in the expected robust free cash flow generation, consistent dividend payments and future potential at Didipio,” said OceanaGold president and CEO Gerard Bond.

Meanwhile, OceanaGold also unveiled details of the potential for increased underground mining rates, as well as potential resource extensions below the current reserve limit of Panel 2.

The optimisation findings include the potential to increase total underground material movement to about 2.5-million tonnes a year, from the current 1.75-million tonnes a year, displacing lower-grade stockpile ore and thereby increasing the overall feed grade to the mill.

The mill throughput could also be increased from the current 4-million tonnes a year to the already permitted 4.3-million tonnes a year to maximise the benefit of processing the larger volume of higher-grade underground ore.

OceanaGold said $100-million to $130-million life-of-mine growth capital would be needed for the additional mine development, expansion of the mobile equipment fleet, paste fill plant upgrade, dewatering and ventilation.

The optimisation study has found that Didipio has the potential to generate a strong return on the growth capital through increased gold and copper production and an extended mine life.