DMCI Mining Corporation, a subsidiary of diversified engineering conglomerate DMCI Holdings Inc., is targeting to increase shipments by 50 percent to 1.5 million wet metric tons (WMT) of nickel ore in 2023. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, DMCI said this comes after DMCI Mining’s subsidiary Zambales Diversified Metals Corporation (ZDMC) was granted an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) in January to produce 2 million WMT of nickel ore. It noted that, prior to the ECC issuance, ZDMC was only allowed to extract 1 million WMT. “We have the necessary facilities and mitigating measures to minimize the impact of our operations on the environment,” said DMCI Mining president Tulsi Das C. Reyes. He added that, “With these in place, we’re targeting to produce anywhere between 1.7 million to 2 million tons of nickel ore this year.” From January to March, ZDMC nickel ore production soared by 88 percent from 318,000 WMT to 599,000 WMT, its highest-ever quarterly output. This led to a 16-percent improvement in total inventory, from 154,000 WMT to 178,000 WMT. However, total shipment declined by 21 percent from 620,000 WMT to 487,000 WMT owing to the depletion of the BNC mine and stockpile, cushioned by the double-digit growth of ZDMC shipment. Average selling price increased by 11 percent from $44 to $49 owing to higher Zambales shipments of higher-grade nickel ore. Despite the mine and stockpile depletion of Berong, DMCI Mining standalone revenues narrowly declined (-8 percent) from P1.4 billion to P1.3 billion due to better selling prices while reported net income contracted by 15 percent from P543 million to P463 million.