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.