| BOND CORP STILL CONSIDERING ATLAS MINING BAIL-OUT | |
| Bond Corp Holdings Ltd <BONA.S> and Atlas | |
| Consolidated Mining and Development Corp <ATLC.MN> are still | |
| holding talks on a bail-out package for the troubled mining | |
| firm, an Atlas statement said. | |
| Atlas, the Philippines' biggest copper producer, said it | |
| had been hit by depressed world copper prices. It reported a | |
| net loss of 976.38 mln pesos in the year ending December 1986, | |
| compared with a net loss of 1.53 billion in 1985. | |
| The company said it had been able to cut its losses because | |
| its scaled-down copper operations in the central island of Cebu | |
| started in the second half of 1986. | |
| Atlas said negotiations were continuing on the acquisition | |
| by Bond of the company's existing bank loans and their | |
| restructuring into a gold loan. | |
| A memorandum of understanding signed by the two sides in | |
| October last year said Bond would acquire Atlas' total loans of | |
| 275 mln dlrs, to be repaid by the mining company in gold. | |
| Atlas said the two sides were also discussing equity | |
| infusion into Atlas and the creation of a development fund for | |
| further exploration and development of the company's gold | |
| properties in the central province of Masbate. | |
| Wilson Banks, general manager of <Bond Corp International | |
| Ltd> in Hong Kong, told Reuters the Atlas statement on the | |
| negotiations was "reasonably accurate." | |
| Banks said Bond Corp was seriously considering several | |
| investments in the Philippines but did not give details. | |
| In its statement, Atlas said development of the pre-World | |
| War Two underground mines in Masbate had been accelerated and | |
| the ore tonnage had increased, extending the operation's life | |
| at least until 1993. | |