COPPER SMELTER AND REFINERY IN ISABEL

About PASAR

The Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corporation owns and operates the only copper smelter and refinery in the Philippines.

Formed in 1976, the company actively pursued the construction of the plant in Leyte which was completed in 1983 to signal the Philippine Government's industrialization plans for the country. PASAR's primary product is electrolytic copper cathodes, the raw material used for manufacturing various kinds of electric cables, telecommunication wires, copper shapes and copper-alloy products. The PASAR Copper Cathode is registered as Grade A Copper in the London Metal Exchange (LME) and as COMEX High Grade Copper in the Commodity Exchange (COMEX) Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). It is also listed in the Shanghai Futures Exchange.The location of PASAR copper smelter and refinery in Leyte in the central Philippines has resulted in many advantages for the company and its partners. The port possesses a deep-harbor facility which is being reconstructed to berth and handle vessels up to 50,000 DWT. It lies in the center of the Philippine archipelago, ready to serve the smelting needs of the country's reviving mining industry.PASAR's strategic location in the Asia Pacific Rim allows access to copper concentrates supplies from Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and Chile. It also has access to the huge refined copper markets of China, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Japan.The complex includes pollution abatement facilities; port and bulk handling facilities; an airstrip; a medical facility; and housing, recreation and educational facilities for company personnel and their dependents

our history

The Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corporation was wrought from the presence of abundant copper resources in the Philippines. Formed in 1976 by the Philippine Government, PASAR was the first of eleven major industrial projects intended to pave the way for the country's industrialization. The original incorporators of PASAR were the Government through the National Development Company (42%), a consortium of the Philippine copper mining companies (22%), the World Bank through the International Finance Corporation (5%) and a consortium of Japanese trading companies made up of Marubeni, Sumitomo and C. Itoh (31%).The PASAR plant complex occupies 80 hectares in the 424-hectare Leyte Industrial Development Estate (LIDE). Completed in 1983 at the cost of US$300 million with the capacity to produce 138,000 metric tonnes of Grade A electrolytic copper cathodes annually, it was expanded in 1993 to its current production capacity of 172,500 metric tonnes per year.In June 1999, a consortium of Philippine investors and Swiss trader, Glencore International AG, procured 90% of the Philippine Government's shareholding and its receivables from PASAR. This acquisition was carried out as part of the country's privatization program, thus, transforming the company into a privately-owned corporation.Subsequently, the shares owned by the Japanese consortium were sold to a privately-held company.Now, the capacity of the smelter has been expanded to 720,000 mtpy of concentrates in 2006, and the refinery will be expanded to 215,000 mtpy of cathodes by mid-2007.

visit this link for more details:

http://www.pasar.net.ph