MANILA, Philippines — Marcventures Holdings Inc. whose operating unit Marcventures Mining and Development Corporation signed a sales contract with Dunfeng International (Philippines) Inc. for the supply of nickel laterite ore, expects its net income to hit almost P1 billion in 2012, about 150 percent over its forecast profit of P384 million this year, as it enters its first full year of production.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Marcventures said the contract is for the supply of 3 million wet metric tons of nickel laterite ore within a period of three years.

“This is in line with the strategy of MMDC to combine a fixed sales contract with spot sales for its nickel ore production,” said Marcventures assistant corporate secretary Ana Maria A. Katigbak.

She said Dunfeng is one of the largest buyers of Philippine nickel ore for export to China and has several major Philippine nickel mining companies as its suppliers.

The income projection was according to the November 2011 research report conducted by Abacus Securities Research, a reputable stock brokerage firm that also conducts in-depth industrial company research and analyses.

According to the report MARC shipped approximately 110,000 wet metric tons (WMT) of high-grade nickel ore worth around P300 million in the third quarter of 2011. On top of this, MARC has pre-sold the rest of its 2011 high-grade nickel ore production for shipment in the last quarter of 2011.

In 2012, with a full year of operations, MARC projects at least 700,000 WMT of high-grade nickel ore sales, which could fetch a net income of P968 million based on a conservative estimate of $55.00 per WMT.

Abacus noted that, this trend will allow MARC to expand its operations and increase its deliveries to up to 1 million tons worth of high-grade nickel ore shipments on an annual average by 2013.

To meet burgeoning demand for NPI, Chinese NPI plants are willing to pay higher prices, especially for high-grade nickel ore, which abounds in MARC’s 4,799-hectare mining property area in Surigao del Sur.