The Semirara Mining and Power Corp. (SMPC) said it has secured an amended Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for the expansion of the Semirara coal mine complex.
The amendment covered an increase in the project area from 4,369.25 hectares to 5,221.75 hectares within the SMPC’s existing 13,000-hectare coal operating contract, in Semirara Island in Caluya town of Antique province, situated south of Mindoro Island, the company said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Wednesday, June 11.
“The ECC amendment allows SMPC to sustain operations by including the Acacia mine alongside the currently operating Narra mine. It also raises the annual production limit from 16 to 20 million metric tons (MT) of coal, using the open-pit mining method, from 2025 to 2027,” the company explained.
The company said the expansion project has been designed to operate with its existing Molave and Narra coal pits before their depletion.
The SMPC earlier said the Molave pit reached its end-of-mine life in November 2023 while the Narra pit has been projected to reach its end sometime in 2026.
Last month, SMPC reported a net income of P4.4 billion for the first quarter of 2025, equivalent to a 33-percent decline from P6.5 billion in the same period in 2024.
The company said the drop was driven by the continued normalization of coal selling prices, which was offset by improvements in the performance of the SMPC’s power generation segment.
The SMPC said that for the same period, total coal production rose by 16 percent from 4.9million MT to 5.7 million MT, driven by improved access to seams in the Narra mine, following continuous pre-stripping activities in 2024.
The SMPC is currently the only vertically-integrated power producer in the country that mines its own fuel source.
