Philippines' Atlas to supply copper to Swiss firm

MANILA, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Atlas Consolidated Mining (AT.PS) said on Tuesday it has signed a deal to supply 60,000 dry metric tonnes of copper concentrate from its Toledo mine in the central Philippines to privately-owned Swiss company MRI Trading.

It was the first supply deal that Atlas, the Philippines' second-largest mining firm, has struck since resuming mining ore at the Toledo mine in Cebu province in July.

The Toledo mine, once the world's third largest copper producer, was closed in 1994 after it was flooded by a typhoon.

"We're now going through final commissioning and we anticipate production of copper concentrate and shipment in September," company chief finance office Martin Buckingham told Reuters.

Atlas said the copper concentrate was expected to be delivered to MRI by June 2009.

"We've had a lot of interest from smelters in China, India, Japan and Korea, but this is a good start for us to work with MRI," said Buckingham.

"We've hedged the first 30,000 tonnes of concentrate which allows us to enjoy the good copper prices available at the moment."

The Toledo mine, which is being operated by Atlas subsidiary Carmen Copper Corp., is estimated to have deposits of 874 million metric tonnes with an average of 0.41 percent copper.

(Reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr.; Editing by Kim Coghill)