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Philippines Mining Industry Reviving After the Shock
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Philippines Mining Industry Reviving After the Shock
Last year, 2021, the Philippines country mining industry had a lot to be thrilled about. For one thing, the industry's production value continued to rise, with double-digit growth in the first nine months. The value of the country's metallic mineral production increased by 22.34 percent from P99.03 billion in the same time the previous year, according to data from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).
Growth in gold and nickel ore output pushed the Philippine mining industry's production value in the first three quarters of 2021, thanks in large part to generally favorable world metal prices." Other metals, like say silver, copper, chromite, and iron ore, had lesser output, according to Rocky Dimaculangan, a spokeswoman for the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP). He stated, "We believe the tendency maintained during the last quarter of the year."
COVID INITIATIVES AND EMPLOYMENT
Despite the pandemic, mining businesses continued to employ their personnel. "As in 2020, the industry went resilient in 2021, demonstrating that it can lie as a cornerstone in the country's post-pandemic comeback efforts by continuing to provide jobs, as well as tax and export earnings for the government," Dimaculangan added.
and surrounding mining towns in the form of medical supplies, food assistance, and other social amelioration activities," he stated.
COMP previously stated that its members were going to great lengths to keep their employees employed during the pandemic, implementing resilient measures that prioritized health and safety.
Its members, largely the country's largest metals mines, were among the first to respond to the epidemic, allowing them to efficiently manage infection risks within and around their mines.
Philex Mining Corp., for example, kept roughly 1,900 employees at its Padcal mine in Tuba, Benguet. The jobs were also preserved at the company's Mandaluyong headquarters, where roughly 80 people work. Aside from safeguarding jobs, mining companies have increased their efforts to promote worker health and safety.
Carmen Copper Corp.'s Trace, Test, and Treat policy is an example of this, in which the company's emergency responders and medical staff methodically traced contacts of those exposed to COVID-19 positive people and provided ongoing testing.
Berong Nickel Corp. likewise closely implemented health and safety regulations at its site. At the same time, Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. provided workers with the appropriate personal protective equipment, including Vitamin C for frontline personnel, and conducted extensive testing for all mine site workers.
THE MORATORIUM ON NEW MINERAL DEALS HAS BEEN LIFTED
The easing of the prohibition on new mineral agreements was one of the major stories in the mining industry last year.
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President Duterte signed Executive Order 130 in April, revising Section 4 of EO 79, which was issued in 2012 during the Aquino administration and forbids the grant of mineral agreements until new legislation that rationalizes existing income sharing schemes and methods are in place.
The new EO authorizes the government to enter into new mining agreements, as long as the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and associated laws, rules, and regulations are followed. It authorizes the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to continue to award and issue exploration permits in accordance with existing laws, rules, and standards.
The lifting of the embargo on new mineral agreements, according to MGB director Wilfredo Moncano, will let the mining sector to raise its contribution to the country's economy. More measures, according to COMP, are needed to make the country's mining industry more appealing to investors.
"While we applaud the issuance of Executive Order 130, which lifted the moratorium on new mining permits, we look forward to more policy pronouncements, such as the lifting of the ban on open pit mining, that will help the Philippine mining industry realise its full potential and attract more foreign and domestic investment," Dimaculangan said.
"We also remain optimistic that future business and investment policies will be more solid. In terms of investment attractiveness and mining legislation, our country has a long way to go in comparison to other mining jurisdictions around the world," he remarked.
According to COMP Chairman Gerard Brimo, the Philippines is no longer on the radar of global mining investors, citing the findings of a Frasier Institute survey that omitted the country.
He claimed that, despite the country's mining industry's potential, the opportunity to grow it was squandered.
"The problem is that policies moved against the sector starting in 2012, when a presidential executive order put a ban on new mining permits in place because the industry wasn't paying enough taxes," he added.
According to Brimo, it took years for the ban to be lifted because President Duterte only issued EO 130 last year, which authorizes the government to enter into new mining agreements.
He claims that the restriction on openpit mining has impeded the industry's expansion. He said that open-pit mining is a technique utilized worldwide to obtain
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Philippines accounts for about a quarter of global mined supplies of the metal used in stainless steel © Bloomberg
near-surface resources that cannot be exploited using underground methods. Moncano expressed optimism that the draught department administrative order (DAO) easing the restriction on open-pit mining would be signed before Duterte's term ends.
(Note: On Dec. 29, 2021, the DENR issued Department Administrative Order (DAO) 2021-40, effectively repealing the order published in 2017 by late environment secretary Regina L. Lopez, a known anti-mining advocate, which lifted the nationwide ban on open-pit mining for copper, gold, silver, and complex ores.)
Brimo mentioned the case of a multinational mining corporation that had to wait 2 years for its permission to be renewed once again in the Philippines due to a dispute with a local government unit, in addition to anti-mining legislation.
ADVANCING THE CAUSE OF SUSTAINABILITY
Mining companies in the country make it a point to establish sustainability initiatives, as their activities have been enormously disliked for their possible negative influence on their sites' environment and communities.
The industry's promise to construct bamboo plantations on over 4,000 hectares of land in the coming 3 years as part of the DENR's bamboo plantation program is one of their attempts to contribute to environmental conservation. COMP also continues to support the Mining Association of Canada's Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) project, a globally recognized sustainability program that assists mining businesses in managing significant environmental and social risks.
Dimaculangan stated the group had made progress by effectively aligning its "Filipinized" version of TSM with the Global Industry Standard in Tailings Management established by the UN Environment Programme's Global Tailings Review.
COMP has also adopted the Filipinized version of the TSM Climate Change Protocol and its associated guide as part of this alignment effort, increasing the total number of protocols that COMP's member companies will apply in the following years to eight," he stated.
