The Agata North lateritic nickel resource in the Philippines forms part of the resource base of MRL (MRL Nickel Philippines, Inc. is a Philippine subsidiary of Mindoro Resources Limited) and has been under active exploration by this company since 1997, with the first lateritic nickel resource drilling program completed in 2006.

Nickeliferous laterite deposits in the Agata area are a series of mineralised plateaus along the western range of the Surigao region of Mindanao. They form specific terrains within the range atop of the predominant underlying ultramafic rocks. The laterites have been developed over ultramafic rocks that lie along the Western Range and are variably mineralized. The rock types within the ultramafics are harzburgite, serpentinised harzburgite, peridotite, serpentinised peridotite, pyroxenite, serpentinised pyroxenite, serpentinite with localised lenses of dunite or serpentinised dunite.

Nickel laterites are the products of intense chemical weathering of the ultramafic rocks, especially the olivine-rich varieties like harzburgite and dunite. The high rainfalls and intense weathering breaks down the easily weathered harzburgite and dunite and the more mobile elements of Mg and Si tend to leave the profile at a much faster rate than the less mobile Feand Ni or Co. Thus high Fe laterite and limonite zones overlie the weathered saprolite of the ultramafic rocks and, where erosion of the upper Fe laterite is low, significant depths of we ........

A shallow surface mining program was originally selected as the mining method due to the nickel laterite ore being located near the land surface. This method incorporates benching and terracing of the land surface for operations accessibility, economic efficiency and better environmental management of the disturbed areas.

The Agata Nickel Laterite Project consists of surface mining and direct shipping of nickel laterite ore.

Conventional load and haul methods are used to remove, handle and manage the exposed nickel laterite ore. The nickel laterite ore extracted from the mine area is hauled by dump trucks to designated stockpile areas for storage, drying, and blending to meet the required ore grade parameters for shipping. Ore materials are then delivered by dump trucks form the stockpiles to ship-sided Land Craft Transport barges (LCT) at an adjacent Port facility located at Sitio Payong-Payong Bay. From the Port, the loaded LCT retreats seaward to the cargo ship (anchored offshore) where the ore from the LCT is transferred to the cargo ship.

Surface Mine Design:
Bench Design: 10-20 meters width, 3 meters height;
Batter Angle: 80 degrees;
Berm width: 3 meters;
Overall Pit Slope: 45 degrees.

Mine Waste Storage Area: storage area for overburden waste materials from the mine areas. The waste materials are stabilized by benching, with berm width maintained at 5 meters.

There will be no ore processed at the project site. Blending and ore drying activities will occur at the Pit stockpile on the top of the plateau approximately 3.5km from Payong Payong.

Following blending and drying, all ore will be trucked to a Port Loading Facility at Payong Payong bay and directly unloaded onto barges that will be moored at two berth causeway.