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Semirara Mining Corp. (formerly Semirara Coal Corp.), a publicly-listed company established in 1980 and s the country's largest coal producer with a total product coal of 3.7 million metric tons (MT) as of end-2008. The company has the exclusive right to explore, mine and develop the coal resources on Semirara Island in Caluya, Antique, a 5,500-hectare island that lies 300 kms. south of Metro Manila. The island has three major coal deposits, namely: Unong, Panian and Himalian. Other minerals found on the island are limestone and silica.
Of the three mines, Unong, which has been commercially operational since 1984, generated Semirara’s entire coal production. With continuous mining on Unong however, the pit’s remaining coal reserves fell to 3.3 million MT, which was sufficient for commercial production only until 1999. With Unong no longer economically viable to mine, a new pit, Panian was developed and eventually made commercially operational in 2000.
Panian, which has estimated coal reserves of 60 million MT, currently generates Semirara’s coal production, which was placed at 2.3 million MT as of December 2006. Studies on Panian showed that its mineable reserves are capable of supporting an annual production of 3 million MT for a mine life of about 20 years. Semirara’s expanded output will have a guaranteed market up to the year 2010 by virtue of its supply contract with National Power Corporation at import parity pricing.
Himalian, on the other hand, has estimated coal reserves of 80 million MT. Its potential reserves are also being studied for future development.
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