Sagittarius Mines is the developer of the Tampakan project in the southern island of Mindanao. The Sy family – among the Philippines’ richest clans – is the majority shareholder in the Tampakan project, the people said. Once production begins, a target currently set for 2026, it will be the largest mine in the Philippines.
An investment from Chinalco would help provide financial stability to the project and it would possibly purchase some of the mine’s output, one of the people said. Considerations are ongoing and the companies may still decide against pursuing a deal, the people said, adding that the project could also draw interest from other industry players. Geopolitical concerns represent another hurdle given recent tensions between China and the Philippines over territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Chinalco, China’s largest state-owned aluminum producer, has investments in various mines from Guinea to Peru to secure raw material for the world’s biggest commodity consuming nation. Other Chinese companies including Zijin Mining Group Co. have been searching for assets globally for the past decade or so, eyeing core industrial metals including copper, a campaign that has occasionally triggered local resistance.
A spokesperson for Sagittarius Mines declined to comment. A representative for Chinalco and officials at Indophil didn’t immediately respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment. When asked about a potential deal, a representative for the Sy family said “it is all rumors.”
The potential move by Chinalco reflects a wider trend across the global mining industry, with top producers rushing to expand copper production on anticipation of rising demand for the metal that’s key for energy transition and data centers.
Copper prices surged to a record in May, before erasing some gains largely due to the weakness in the Chinese economy. A deficit still looms longer-term as consumption is expected to increase, while large new mines are hard to find and increasingly costly to build.
The Tampakan project has stalled for years after being discovered three decades ago, with Glencore Plc exiting in 2015 and as regulatory concerns mounted, including a Philippine ban on open-pit mining that was lifted in 2021.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is seeking to revitalize the mining industry in the Philippines to sustain one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies. It is estimated that Tampakan can produce an average of 375,000 tons of copper and 360,000 ounces of gold in concentrate annually over a 17-year period.
The Sy family controls SM Investments Corp., the Philippines’ biggest conglomerate by market value, which owns the nation’s largest lender and mall developer. It has a minority stake in Atlas Consolidated Mining & Development Corp., which operates a copper mine in the central province of Cebu. The Sy siblings also have investments outside of the conglomerate including Henry Sy Jr.’s stake in the country’s power grid.
(By Pei Li, Cliff Venzon and Elffie Chew)
