By Roderick T. dela Cruz

The Environment Department has endorsed the application of Metals Exploration Plc of the UK for Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement covering a gold-rich mine in Nueva Vizcaya province.

Metals Exploration, in a statement posted on its Web site, said Environment Secretary Lito Atienza on March 6 endorsed to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo the application of FCF Minerals Corp. to convert its exploration permit for the Runruno gold-molybdenum project in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya into an FTAA.

Metals Exploration owns 85 percent and has rights to the remaining 15 percent of FCF Minerals, a local company. An FTAA, which is a partnership between the government and a mining company, allows 100 percent foreign ownership of the project and is valid for 25 years.

A company must invest at least $50 million for a project in order to qualify to construct a mining and processing operation under an FTAA. Metals Exploration earlier placed the development cost for the Runruno project, including molybdenum recovery, at $208.4 million.

Metals Exploration will be the second foreign company to hold an FTAA in a project in Nueva Vizcaya, after OceanaGold, which is developing the Didipio gold-copper project in the town of Kasibu.

?It is going to be a big boost for the economy. I am sure [the President] will act on this very fast to allow the company to immediately operate,? Atienza was quoted in the statement prepared by the British miner.

Metals Exploration said it began the application process for an FTAA in the first quarter of 2008, after passing through various stages, including evaluation by the local Mines and Geosciences Bureau, endorsement by the MGB director and review by the Environment secretary.

?Approval by the President and numbering by the MGB Regional Office are the final stages,? it said.

Metals Exploration chief executive Jonathan Beardsworth said the endorsement by Atienza was a critical milestone in the development of the Runruno project. He said the feasibility study on Runruno was progressing well and on schedule.

A scoping and pre-feasibility study, based on an open pit mining operation and biological leaching, estimated that the Runruno project could yield 2 million ounces of gold and 34 million pounds of molybdenum in a nine-year production period.

Gold prices have recently knocked at the $1,000 per ounce level, as investors sought the bullion markets as a safer haven amid the volatility in the equities markets.

The deposit is located within a large alkaline volcanic complex, about 3.5 kilometers in diameter, of which less than 10 percent has been effectively explored.