Canadian gold mining company TVI Pacific in September announced that its Philippines affiliate TVI Resource Development (TVIRD) completed the acquisition of 100% of the outstanding equity of trading company Greenstone Resources Corporation (GRC).

GRC was previously the Philippine affiliate of Western Australia-based gold company Red 5 Limited and is the owner and operator of the Siana gold project and the Mapawa project, both of which are located on the island of Mindanao, in the southern Philippines.

Notably, Siana currently holds a voluntary care-and-maintenance status.

The assets of GRC include a modern 1.1-million-dry-ton mill, a gravity and carbon-in-leach facility, and all other key infrastructure together with the Siana, Mapawa and Ferrer tenements.

TVIRD management and the directors believe that the Siana and Mapawa tenements have exploration potential with the currently defined Siana deposit open to depth and laterally, while Mapawa and Ferrer are in the early stages of exploration.

TVIRD’s plan is to recommence operations at Siana as soon as possible and it is presently developing plans in line with this objective.

The company has been advised that all required permits are in place to restart Siana, including an environmental compliance certificate and an approved declaration of mining project feasibility, both from the Philippines government.

Siana has the only modern gold plant in the region and therefore has the potential to become a processing centre for other nearby prospects or gold deposits.

Mining operations have been conducted at Siana since the early 1900s, with major commercial underground mining conducted by the Philippine mining company Suricon Consolidated from 1938 to 1960 followed by openpit mining from 1980 to 1991.

Siana had produced nearly one-million ounces of gold prior to its acquisition in 2003 by GRC, and TVIRD understands that, to date, Siana has produced a further 149 203 oz of gold and 199 669 oz of silver under the control of GRC.

Red 5 has previously published underground and openpit mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates for Siana and mineral resource estimates for Mapawa.

These estimates were prepared using the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves.

No estimates for either Siana or Mapawa have been prepared using the 2014 definition standards published by the Canadian Institute of Mining Metallurgy and Petroleum – or CIM 2014 Standard – and no technical report supporting this estimate has been prepared in accordance with the National Instruments Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.