PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Indophil Resources on Monday announced that the operating arm of the Tampakan copper/gold project, in the Philippines, Sagittarius Mines, had “pressed the reset button” on the project.

Sagittarius announced a revised work plan at the $5.9-billion Tampakan project with the aim of securing government support on key bottleneck issues before proceeding to final valuation and possible development.

The revised work plan followed a project review, which investigated the issues and challenges facing the project, including the resolution of the South Cotabato openpit mining ban, the definition of the pathways to project approvals from all levels of government and the gaining of consent to resettle impacted communities.

“With these challenges as yet unresolved, it has not proved possible to make adequate progress towards our project goals and, without a fundamental change in approach, progress is unlikely to improve in the foreseeable future,” Sagittarius said.

The company noted that the change in plan was “timely” and aimed at giving the Tampakan project the opportunity to progress in a reasonable timeframe.

Sagittarius warned that the plan would reduce the current activity levels and expenditure on the project and would result in staff downsizing and a reduction in the number of contractors.

Indophil CEO Richard Laufmann said on Monday that the company had advocated changes to the mine plan for some time.

He noted that the company remained in discussions with project partner Glencore Xstrata regarding specific areas of revised work, adding that a range of on-the-ground programmes designed to advance social-licence-to-operate criteria could be separately supported by Indophil, while Sagittarius worked with the government to redefine and reset the pathway to project approval.

The Tampakan project, which is majorly held by diversified miner Glencore Xstrata, contains an estimated 2.94-billion tons of mineral resource, containing around 15-million tons of copper and around 18-million ounces of gold.