Now that Malacañang has put on hold the recent closure and suspension orders over 28 mines across the Philippines, the time should be used to pause and think—especially on the question whether responsible mining is actually feasible.
The Philippines is blessed being one among the countries in this planet with abundant mineral deposits. We are considered among the top mining countries in the world—3rd in gold, 4th in copper, 5th in nickel and 6th in chromite—not to mention our immense non-metallic deposits like marble. The estimate is there is roughly $840-billion—or P41.9 trillion—worth of mineral deposits that have yet to be tapped. The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines estimates that some 9 million hectares of the country’s 30 million land area have high-mineral potential, yet only 2 percent of this—180,000 hectares—are covered by contracts or formal mining permits.
Mining’s bad side, however, is equally well-documented. Entire mountains in Palawan, Samar, and the CARAGA region get bulldozed and exported, while the country—especially the LGUs where the mines can be found—gets very minimal benefit. Many times, local communities are left environmentally damaged and residents suffer various ailments and chronic illnesses in the wake of unscrupulous mining operations.
Properly harnessed, developed and processed, our minerals can help finance our bridges, roads, schools and hospitals, as well as a host of social services. Utilizing a fraction of our deposits could already spur immense countryside growth not just in mining, but in ancillary industries as well. But leaving the industry unregulated and its fiscal regime grossly lopsided against the national government and local communities, mining could just end up becoming a bane, rather than a boon for the country.
Technology and global best practices may provide solutions and help us save our treasures. In 2012, the Congressional Commission on Science & Technology and Engineering (COMSTE), which I chaired, pushed for the creation of innovation clusters for responsible mining—tripartite partnerships among mining companies, universities and government agencies in research and development (R&D) and technology transfer.
Through these clusters, responsible mining companies could tap local universities and communities to conduct biodiversity inventories, water quality tests, and social impact assessments of their operations. With the help of government, they could usher in the transfer of the world’s top mining technologies that are also environmentally safe. Such collaboration could help create a deep talent pool for high-value jobs in science and technology for mining and its associated skills in refining and logistics, while ensuring that the industry is not only environmentally sustainable but socially acceptable as well.
In 2012, Time magazine ran an article saying that the Philippines, with the previous administration’s moratorium on new mining permits, could set the standards of extractive industries across the globe. Better R&D and technology transfer would make that happen. It didn’t.
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