Sy and Consunji Families Are Building a Philippine Mining Giant—but Funding It Will Require a Herculean Effort
Dominion Holdings is assembling control of Atlas Mining and the Tampakan copper-gold project. Turning those assets into producing mines will require billions of dollars, new investors, and a financing structure that can survive commodity cycles. Dominion Holdings Inc. is rapidly acquiring the outlines of a Philippine mining heavyweight. The investment company, controlled by the Sy family and chaired by construction-and-mining executive Isidro Consunji, is moving to consolidate two of the country’s most consequential copper assets: the operating Toledo mine of Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. in Cebu and the vast but undeveloped Tampakan copper-gold deposit in Mindanao. Dominion’s board on Aug. 19 approved a merger with Indophil Resources Phils. Inc. and Sonar Holdings Inc., which together hold all the voting rights in Sagittarius Mines Inc., holder of the government agreement covering Tampakan. The deal would transform Dominion from a lightly capitalized inve...