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Deposit Type: Gold-rich porphyry copper; spatially related to significant epithermal vein systems; low sulfide content; mineralized diorite intrusions in volcanics and metasediments.

Location: Sitio Gumayan, barangay Kingking, town of Pantukan province of Compostela Valley (formerly Davao del Norte), eastern Mindanao island, Philippines; approximate center of the deposit is at geographical coordinates 12558'40" east longitude and 7011'31" north latitude.

Access: By air, Kingking is about 35km east-northeast of Davao City, the major gateway o Mindanao from Manila and other parts of the world. By road, the property is about 17km from Pantukan, which in turn is 92km from Davao City.

Physiography: Topography is rugged to very rugged; elevations at 400-800m above sea level; tropical climate (type I-B) with no pronounced wet or dry season; average annual rainfall is 2,100mm (84 inches); temperature range is 18-35C; prospect is drained by the Kingking river which flows southwestward to Davao Gulf.

Property Ownership and Tenement Status: The Kingking deposit is approximately 1,656 hectares; covered by (Kingking) Mineral Production sharing Agreement (MPSA) No. 009-92-XI which grants Benguet Corporation (Benguet), operator, and Nationwide Development Corporation (Nadecor), as claim owner-lease holder, the exclusive rights to explore, develop, operate and mine the minerals within the grant, including surface access and to exercise such rights.

In 1981, Benguet obtained the option to all Nadecor's interest in the Kingking property through an earn-in under and operating agreement. The earned interest will be subject to a retained production royalty in favor of Nadecor. Only in 1991, after a protracted ownership litigation, did Benguet gain official control of the property.

Metal Inventory: In mid-1997, KMI's 'Level 1' study estimated Kingking's metal inventory to be:

Operator/Corporate Contact:
Benguet Corporation
3/F Universal Re Bldg., Paseo de Roxas
1226 Makati City, Philippines

MCPO Box 3488
Phone: (63-2) 812-1380 or 752-0715
Fax: (632) 752-0717
 

Contact Persons:
Benjamin Philip G. Romualdez
( President/CEO)

Marcelo A. Bolaño
(Senior Vice-President, Operations)

Tomas D. Malihan
(Chief Geologist)

Ore Type

Million Tonnes

% Total Cu

gm/t Au

Oxide Ore

 87 

0.470 

0.675 

Sulfide Ore

 316 

0.294 

0.437 

Total Mineable Reserve

403 

0.332 

0.488 

Total Resource

 1,040 

0.306 

0.410 

Ore Type

Million Tonnes

% Total Cu

gm/t Au

Oxide Ore

110 

0.455 

0.486 

Sulfide Ore

 639 

0.376 

0.423 

Total Resource

749 

0.387

0.433 

Ore Type

Million Tonnes

% Total Cu

gm/t Au

Oxide Ore

51 

0.641 

0.663 

Sulfide Ore

320 

0.346 

0.419 

Total Mineable Reserve

371 

0.387 

0.453 

1960

Nadecor staked the Kingking claims after tracing the source of chrysocolla- and alachite-stained rock floats along Kingking river.

1969-1972

Nadecor signed up the property to Mitsubishi Metal Mining Corporation of Japan who drilled 54 core holes totaling 13,272 m.

1977

Nadecor optioned Kingking to Cities Services Minerals.

1980-1991

Protracted litigation on ownership of Kingking.

1991

After the favorable Supreme Court decision, Benguet finally took control of Kingking

1991-1994

Benguet drilled 20,017m from 71 core holes and 4,212m from 25 reverse circulation holes; mapped in detail 165km of creeks and road cuts covering 2,500 hectares; drove 2 confirmatory adits aggregating 260m with 66m of raises; collected 2,173 surface channel samples and; conducted in-house metallurgical and "pre-definitive" feasibility studies.

1995-1997

Kingking Mines Inc. (KMI), a company organized by Echo Bay Mines Inc. (75%) and TVI Resources, Inc. (25%), optioned Kingking from Benguet with KMI having the right to purchase Benguet's interest within 24 months.

Until 1997 KMI drilled 126 core holes (52,099 m) on the main Kingking deposit and 4 other core holes (1,942 m) in surrounding prospective areas.  Because of low metal prices and loses incurred by Echo Bay in its other mining and exploration ventures, KMI decided not to exercise its option to purchase. The property then reverted to Benguet

Brief Geology: Kingking is a gold-rich porphyry copper deposit spatially related to significant epithermal vein systems. The deposit is located on the western flank of the Eastern Mindanao Cordillera, between two major splays of the Philippine Fault System. Kingking, so far, is the most southerly of a group of gold and copper deposits found along a 75-km long north-northwest-trending mineralized belt that includes, among others, Hijo, Amacan and Masara mines and the bonanza-grade gold rush areas of Diwalwal farther north. Copper and gold mineralization along this belt is generally associated with Miocene-age diorite intrusives.

Mineralization in the Kingking deposit is hosted primarily by an elongate and N60°W-striking diorite intrusive complex (plagioclase-rich hornblende diorite and biotite diorite porphyries). The intruded country rock is composed mainly of highly folded Cretaceous-Paleogene tuffs, andesites and undifferentiated sedimentary units.

Capping the sulfide zone at the Kingking deposit is a thick oxide blanket, which probably formed through rapid uplift and subsequent erosion of the roof of the anticline which, coupled with the characteristic low pyrite content of the deposit, might have also prevented the development of a significant supergene sulfide enrichment blanket.

Hypogene sulfide mineralization usually occurs as fracture fillings and, to a lesser extent, as disseminations in the diorite porphyries and adjacent wallrocks. The main copper-bearing minerals are chalcopyrite and bornite and occasional primary chalcocite. Pyrite and magnetite are ubiquitous throughout the deposit. Molybdenite commonly occurs as fracture coatings and in quartz veins. Gold occurs as exsolution intergrowths in the sulfides particularly chalcopyrite.

Epithermal type gold usually in quartz veinlets appears to be overprinted on the oxide zone.

Hydrothermal alteration is typical of island arc porphyry copper systems except for unusually well developed biotite and potassium feldspar zones and the ubiquitous occurrence of epidote in all alteration types. Most of the higher grade copper and gold mineralization at Kingking is hosted by potassic alteration zones.

Extensions Of Mineralization: Drilling completed to-date at Kingking, suggests that porphyry copper mineralization is still open to the northeast, east, southeast and at depth.

Additional Prospects: Aside from the Kingking Cu-Au porphyry deposit, there are currently three (3) gold camps present inside the Nadecor claims, and these are, Mabaros-Panganason, Diat and Binutaan. In general, local artisanal miners recover the gold by sluicing, panning and limited tunneling. At Panganason, however, more modern mining equipment and techniques are being employed.

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