Apex Mining Company is acquiring a mining firm with copper-gold assets in Benguet. Apex has signed agreements for acquisition of 98% of the outstanding capital stock of Itogon Suyoc Resources Inc (ISRI), a company with mining claims and a mill and production facilities in Sangilo, Itogon.

“The purchase price is P182.672 million consisting of P32.672 million in cash and P150 million in Apex shares,” Apex said in a disclosure.

Apex says it will infuse at least P238 million in new equity in ISRI to pay down its debts and to reopen its mining operation. The listed company took a loan from BDO Unibank to fund the acquisition.

In the first quarter of 2015, Apex returned to profit after posting losses in the past two years. The company said it earned a net income of P100 million in the first three months of 2015, a reversal from the P143 million net loss in the same period in 2014.

Apex Mining president and chief executive Walter Brown says he is confident that the company will end 2015 profitably.

“We have gone closer to our current goal of producing monthly at least 4000 ounces of gold from the milling rate of 1100 tonnes per operating day.

Additional milling capacity was added at the Maco mine last December while additional peripherals are also being installed to fully utilize this added capacity,” he said.