THREE mining companies from the Philippines were adjudged winners at the recently concluded second Asean Mineral Awards (AMA) held in Bangkok, Thailand.
The awards is a biennial event that recognizes mineral resource companies for achieving best practices in environmentally and socially sustainable operations.
The winners, all members of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP), are large-scale miners that passed the environmental standards set by mining regulators.
Coral Bay Nickel Corp., which operates a nickel processing plant in Rio Tuba, Bataraza, Palawan, emerged with the best practices award for the Philippines in the metallic mineral processing category. Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp., also in Bataraza, was named runner-up in the metallic mineral mining category while Agata Mining Ventures Inc. was also named runner-up in the Metallic mineral distribution category. In the non-metallic category, Lafargeholcim bagged runner-up awards in both the mining and processing categories.
The AMA is an initiative of the Asean mining ministers to recognize best practices in sustainable mineral mining, processing and distribution among its various member-countries.
The Awards, launched in 2017 in Myanmar, saw the Philippines garnering 2 of the 3 awards handed out, with Rio Tuba Nickel recognized for best mining practices and OceanaGold Philippines Inc. for best plant. Since then, the AMA has been expanded to six categories, with nonmetallic minerals separate from metallic minerals.
“We are extremely pleased that again, Philippine minerals resource companies were recognized for best practices in the various categories,” Gerard Brimo, COMP chairman, said in a statement.
“We hope this recognition will demonstrate that we have world-class mineral operations in our country even as we in COMP strive to raise the bar by subscribing to new global mining standards of excellence, such as the Towards Sustainable Mining initiative.
“We thank Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu and Mines and Geosciences Director Wilfredo Moncano for encouraging us to aspire to higher standards and better ways of doing things, which has undoubtedly raised the performance of the mineral resource development sector in our country,” Brimo added.