Future remains uncertain for copper projects in the Philippines

The removal of Regina Lopez, the controversial head of the Philippines' Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), will not eliminate the high risk associated with the development of new open-pit copper-gold projects in the country. We have four advanced greenfield copper projects in the Philippines on our list of future probable and possible supply projects: Mabilo, Kingking, Siangan and Tampakan. These projects are all planned open-pit mines producing a copper concentrate product (with Kingking also having an SxEw component). We estimate the combined potential copper supply from these projects could reach more than 600 ktpa copper in 2026 – a significant volume in a world expected to be fundamentally short on copper by this time.