NICKEL OPERATIONS SUSPENDED ON COVID CASES

Listed Nickel Asia Corporation (NAC) has disclosed  that its subsidiary Hinatuan Mining Corporation (HMC) will temporarily suspend operations in its mine site in the Municipality of Tagana-an, Surigao Del Norte from October 27, 2020 up to November 10, 2020 to implement measures to minimize the transmission of the COVID-19 virus among its employees in the mine site and in nearby communities.

On October 19, 2020, HMC reported to the proper authorities that two (2) of its employees had been taken initially to Surigao Doctors Hospital on suspicion of COVID 19 infection and after undergoing confirmatory Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing, were found to be positive. HMC conducted immediate contact tracing and isolation of close contacts of these employees to contain the transmission of the virus. HMC also voluntarily placed the entire mine site on lockdown for seven (7) days from October 19, 2020 to prevent the further transmission of the virus to nearby communities and informed government authorities about this precautionary measure.

In the meantime, the Municipality of Tagana-an issued Executive Order No. 29, Series of 2020 dated October 19, 2020 placing the entire mine site on lockdown until further orders. HMC continued its operations while observing government and company-mandated protocols for COVID-19 prevention, testing, and treatment.

After the PCR test results confirmed that 17 HMC employees who were close contacts of the two (2) COVID positive employees were also positive for COVID-19, HMC’s management deemed it necessary to temporarily suspend mining operations at its Tagana-an site for a period of 14 days to contain the transmission of the virus.

Thereafter, upon medical and safety assessment, HMC will resume essential non-mining/support activities. HMC formally informed the Municipality of Tagana-an and the Province of Surigao del Norte of the voluntary suspension of its operations on October 27, 2020.

HMC continues to implement the necessary measures to contain the transmission of COVID-19 in coordination with the relevant local government units and agencies.

HMC will continue to implement mass testing of those in the mine site and additional isolation and quarantine facilities and medical response teams have been activated to handle eventualities. Infected employees will be managed and treated in accordance with DOH and mine site health and safety protocols. Contact tracing continues to be done in coordination with government authorities. HMC also continues to provide food, vitamins, face masks and face shields to its employees, and to implement measures including regular disinfection of premises and physical distancing among persons.

The potential impact to NAC’s financial results of the suspension of operations of HMC is not expected to be significant because HMC is already at the tail-end of its mining season and the last of its ore shipments have been loaded and the rest diverted to NAC’s other subsidiaries, Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corporation and Cagdianao Mining Corporation. In 2019, HMC accounted for 11% of the NAC’s Group’s total ore sales volume.