Commissioning of the production plant at Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation’s Toledo Copper Project on the island of Cebu in the Philippines has been completed and production of copper is under way.

The Toledo project is operated by Atlas’ copper subsidiary Carmen Copper and is at Toledo City on the island’s west coast. Carmen is in the process of revamping the copper operation, which was the biggest in Asia from 1955 until 1994, when it was suspended.

When the primary crusher was commissioned in early July the company began processing ore that had been stockpiled. Other plant items at the mill have since been commissioned.

Atlas has been granted a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement, covering an area of about 648 hectares in Toledo City that forms part of Carmen's contract area.

Carmen had planned to boost copper production this year, with rehabilitation of its Toledo mine nearly complete, however, it needs more funds to fully rehabilitate the mine by 2009.

Atlas has raised $140 million in capital for the project, of which $100 million came from Deutsche Bank and $40 million from a Singapore-based financing firm, Crescent Asian Special Opportunities Portfolio.

It has also agreed over a bridge loan facility of $20 million with a global capital fund. This is intended to be transformed into a convertible loan.

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