BHP Billiton has completed a 35 hole drilling and evaluation program at the Mindoro Resources and Panoro Minerals Agata nickel laterite joint venture property in the Surigao Gold District of the Philippines . Drilling has only tested about 25% of the nickel laterite area outlined by surface work to date.

BHP Billiton was granted the exclusive right, for 180 days mid December last year, to undertake a drilling and evaluation program on the prospect.

BHP Billiton had the objective of defining laterite ore suitable for direct shipping to its processing plant in Queensland , Australia . Companies looking for lateritic raw material to supply their particular processing facility are constrained by the specific process requirements of their facility. The specific process requirements are sensitive to the contents not only of nickel and cobalt but also of iron, silica and magnesium and various ratios of these constituents. Cobalt is not recovered by all processes. An independent producer of lateritic nickel ore is able to consider different materials, if they can be mined selectively and shipped separately to different customers with different processing facilities.

Limonitic and saprolitic material can be selectively mined at a minimum thickness of 2 metres and shipped to separate customers, consequently making both materials at the prospect area of economic interest. At the current price of nickel of greater than US$10/pound (and at price ranges somewhat below US$10.00/pound), material containing 1% nickel (containing 22 pounds of nickel per metric tonne) can be of economic interest.

The Mindoro and Panoro joint venture partners believe this material to have the potential to meet requirements for direct shipping to the closer markets of China, Japan, Korea, as well as processing plants being contemplated, or under construction in the Philippines itself. Among other parameters, these consumers are seeking material with nickel grades of 1% nickel and above.

The joint venture's immediate focus at Agata is the project's porphyry copper-gold potential.

Mindoro Resources has identified 22 porphyry copper-gold prospects and the Agata nickel laterite prospect in the Philippines and has an aggressive strategy of drilling multiple targets.

Meanwhile Panoro Minerals strategic focus is on exploring for large-potential gold and copper/gold deposits in countries with the corresponding geological potential and where the right political and economic conditions are present.