Business insiders have told Nosy Tarsee about a listed investment company that, until recently, barely registered on anyone’s radar. That’s about to change. The company is being rapidly transformed into the anchor of what could become one of the country’s most significant mining alliances.

The company is controlled by a prominent retail-and-property family, with a construction-and-mining veteran serving as chairman.

Nosy Tarsee’s informant said the board recently approved a merger with two holding entities that together control all the voting rights in the corporate vehicle holding the government agreement over a massive, undeveloped copper-gold deposit in Mindanao — long considered one of the largest untapped deposits of its kind in Southeast Asia.

The same investment company has also been quietly building a position in an operating copper mine in Cebu, with plans to eventually take a majority stake through a much larger share transfer from its controlling family’s flagship conglomerate.

That bigger transaction is reportedly still being negotiated, with the price, structure and timing all said to be undecided. Executives close to the deal say internal funds and borrowings are being considered as ways to pay for it.

What’s emerging, according to those familiar with the plans, is a two-mine strategy: one asset that’s already producing and generating cash, and the other that’s enormous in scale but will require years of development, permitting and heavy capital spending before it earns a peso.

The operating mine just posted a sharp earnings turnaround, swinging from a loss a year ago to solid profitability, helped by stronger metal prices and progress on a long-running mine redevelopment program meant to unlock more ore.

That improved performance is only adding to the mine’s value just as the controlling family prepares to consolidate it under the same roof as the undeveloped deposit.

The endgame: Turn what was once a lightly capitalized shell company into the listed centerpiece of a mining powerhouse.