TVI Resource Development (Phils) Inc (TVIRD), a company in which TVI Pacific has a 30.66% equity interest, has filed an updated preliminary prospectus with the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to its proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO) of TVIRD shares in the Philippines.

Subject to market conditions, approval by the SEC listing and approval by the PSE, the IPO and listing of the TVIRD shares on the main board of the PSE is now tentatively scheduled for completion on February 29, 2016.

TVI’s chairman and chief executive officer Clifford James, who is also chairman of TVIRD, said, “Partly due to the fact that government offices and businesses were closed for a week in mid-November in connection with the APEC summit meetings, and we are now well into the holiday season, TVIRD’s listing process has been deferred to early 2016 to provide the PSE, SEC and TVIRD’s underwriter with the necessary time to carry out their review and book building activities.

“While we had hoped to see TVIRD’s IPO take place before the end of 2015, TVI remains optimistic about the prospects for the IPO in early 2016 given TVIRD’s diverse pipeline of projects and the strong support of its majority shareholder, Prime Resource Holdings Inc.

“We believe the establishment of a public market for TVIRD shares will allow North American investors to better evaluate the value of TVI’s 30.66% indirect interest and provide us with a potential source of non-dilutive funding.”

TVIRD has indicated in the preliminary prospectus that it proposes to use the net proceeds from the primary offer to fund certain capital expenditures for the construction, development and operation of the Balabag Gold-Silver Project in Zamboanga del Sur.

TVIRD was incorporated under the laws of the Philippines on January 18, 1994 and was an indirect subsidiary of TVI until July 2014 when Prime became a controlling shareholder. TVIRD was the first foreign-affiliated Philippine company to reach the production stage, following the enactment of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, with the Canatuan project in the municipality of Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte. At Canatuan TVIRD established gold and silver operations from 2004 to 2008 and transitioned to copper and zinc operations from 2009 until 2014, during which time TVIRD ranked among the country’s top copper and zinc producers.

Since then, TVIRD has evolved into a diversified mining company that focuses on the acquisition, exploration, development and production of resource projects in the Philippines. Key projects include the Balabag project and nickel laterite direct shipping ore operations at the Agata project in northern Mindanao.