AN official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said the Duterte administration will collaborate with mining companies to build “public confidence” in their sector, which is in focus again following a deadly landslide that killed 70 people in an illegal small-scale mining site in Itogon, Benguet, during Typhoon Ompong’s onslaught.
Notwithstanding unrelenting criticism from anti-mining and environmental groups after the Itogon landslide, DENR Undersecretary Analiza R. Teh, in a speech at the Mining Philippines 2018 International Conference and Exhibition in Pasay City on Wednesday, cited the mining industry’s “significant contribution” to social and economic development.
“The mining performance review and the recent policy issuances are efforts to build public confidence in mining,” Teh said.
President Duterte, who had been critical of the impact of mining on the environment, had once again expressed such disappointment with the sector when he visited areas affected by Typhoon Ompong.
Minahang Bayan
Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, meanwhile, has ordered officials to fast-track the processing of Minahang Bayan applications to legalize small-scale mining operations in the country, particularly in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), site of the deadly landslide.
Illegal small-scale activity is rampant in the area.
The privately owned mining area is formerly a mining site of Benguet Corp., which ceased operations in that place in 1997, and has denied giving the small-scale miners permission to operate there. The small-scale miners encroached into the site to make a living from illegal mining activities.
They were occupying bunk-houses built by Benguet for its staff. These were sturdy, but the soil had been degraded, especially with the constant rains unleashed by Ompong.
The small-scale miners who figured in the landslide are different from groups, numbering about 500, with special authority given by the local government unit to do mining.
More than a thousand small-scale miners are conducting pocket mining or backyard gold processing in various parts of the CAR.
Communication drive
To communicate the gains of responsible mining in the country, Teh told the COMP conference, effective environmental and social safeguards should be in place on the part of the government.
Listed among the most mineralized nations in the world, the Philippines’s untapped mineral resources are estimated to amount to billions of dollars. The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) estimated the country’s total gold reserves in 2016 at 1.9 billion metric tons (MT) with an average grade of 0.16 grams per ton; and silver, 1.7 billion MT with an average grade of 1.27 grams per ton.
Copper reserves, on the other hand, are estimated to be around 1.8 billion MT, while iron and nickel have reserves of 116 million MT and 116.14 million MT, respectively. Chromite’s reserves stood around 47.3 million MT.
The Philippines is also considered one of the top nickel exporters in the world, with production ranging from 30 million wet metric tons to 36 million WMT as of 2017.
Policy recommendations
As part of the government’s efforts to help promote and enforce sustainable practices in the mining sector, Teh said the DENR, through the MGB, is now considering certain policy recommendations.
These are re-examination of the timing of required mining planning documents and related permits; expansion of the one-stop committee concept to all other permitting processes in the sector; strengthening the government’s progress, performance
and impact monitoring; revisiting taxes, fees, penalties and contingency funds; institutional strengthening; and better management of financial, reputation/investment, environmental and climate risks.
“In communicating the gains of responsible mining, it is about time that the mining industry shows that it strives to become a champion in promoting responsible stewardship of natural resources and the environment,” Teh said.