Mining

The national government intends to impose far heavier taxes and tougher environmental restrictions on the mining industry, President Benigno Aquino said Tuesday.

BAGUIO CITY—President Aquino said on Sunday night that mining activities would most likely be barred in 78 ecotourism sites in the country identified by the Department of Tourism (DOT) to nurture and sustain tourism growth.

LEGAZPI CITY: A “camote” style of illegal coal mining operations are thriving in Batan Island, Rapu-Rapu, Albay under the noses of local officials, clashing directly with the reputation of the Province as a pioneer in climate-change adaptation programs.

NICKEL mining operations in Palawan have already contaminated a river system with unsafe levels of carcinogenic or cancer-causing chemicals, Filipino and Japanese environment groups today revealed. In a press conference in Quezon City, environment activists from Friends of the Earth Japan (FoE-Japan) and the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) presented findings from…

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines further slipped this year as the sixth most unattractive to explorers of industrial and precious metals from being the world’s 14th least attractive place for global mining investments last year, according to an annual survey from a Canadian think tank.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima on Wednesday said mining taxation will be revised to follow the 50-50 revenue sharing between the government and the investor in the mold of the service contract governing the Malampaya natural gas project.

Local and foreign mining companies slammed Tuesday a proposed increase in taxes as contained in a proposed executive order, saying they will render the Philippines uncompetitive as a venue for top-grade mining investors.

The Philippines is considering tightening rules, cutting tax breaks and reviewing resource contracts in what could be the biggest revamp in its mining policy since a 2004 court ruling supporting foreign investment.

Outraged mining executives aside, it is right for the government to start heeding lessons learned from our sad experiences in the mining industry. Mining companies will always say that mining is good for the economy, that mining is booming, but who really gets the huge rewards from our country’s vast mineral wealth?

Very few realize that to produce a single gold ring, 20 tons of mine wastes are generated. And where does all mine wastes go? To the rivers, the water systems, the air, the soil, the animals and the plants. Eventually, these toxic wastes will find themselves lodged in human bodies.

Up to 80 percent of small-scale miners operating in the country are presumed illegal, majority of which are operating in Mindanao, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) said on Sunday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Coalition for Responsible Mining in Mindanao (COREMin2), an alliance of key mining companies in Mindanao, is urging President Aquino to step in and resolve the growing dispute over local ordinances banning open pit mining.

In recent days I ran several pieces about the dark side of mining. Among them are studies of poverty and joblessness worsening in mining regions, and looming disaster from tailings dams. As a rejoinder of sorts, the Chamber of Mines sent some industry figures and concerns. In fair play, I present them as the view…

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) on Thursday expressed deep concern over the passing of a provincial ordinance banning open pit mining in Zamboanga del Norte, saying that it will send conflicting signal to all potential investors.

MINERS now have to either establish a reforestation area or to donate seedlings to the National Greening Program (NGP) under an order issued earlier this month by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).

PALO, Leyte, Philippines –  Four members of President Aquino’s cabinet have been tasked to craft Philippines’ mining policy, which is aimed at preserving the country’s natural resources and at the same time make use of minerals without sacrificing the environment.

MANILA, Philippines – The availability of jobs and steady source of income remains one of the country’s biggest challenges today. That is why Philex Mining Corp., which is committed to providing thousands of Filipino workers adequate jobs, particularly in the rural areas, have earned commendation from the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) yesterday assured the public that the planned employment of special Cafgus within mining sites in Surigao del Norte, which lost more than P2 billion in properties during an attack staged by the New People’s Army (NPA) early this month, will not lead to more human rights violations.

BANTAY Kita is a newly-formed network advocating for transparency in the extractive, particularly the mining industry. It is composed of organizations engaging the mining industry on their adverse effects on communities and the environment, and economic and governance policy research and reform organizations.

The Philippine government should rescind its plan of deploying civilian militias to augment security at private mining operations, Amnesty International said.

Alyansa Tigil Mina expresses its deep regrets and anguish to the resulting social disorder brought about by the NPA attacks to the Taganito Mining Project in Claver, Surigao del Norte.  Beside the destruction of equipment and damaged structures, our alliance is disturbed that the communities in and around the mining site are the biggest losers…

Gina Lopez, the untiring managing director of ABS-CBN Foundation Inc. and stalwart champion of environment causes including No to Mining in Palawan movement and the Save Palawan movement, left with me a fair amount of reading materials on why mining must be banned in Palawan.

Mining in Zamboanga Peninsula banned GROUPS commend the Supreme Court (SC) en banc decision and issuance of Writ of Kalikasan to ban mining in Zamboanga Peninsula on August 16.

MANILA, Philippines — Investors in the mining sectors have been asked to be more sensitive to the needs of indigenous and farming communities. This was urged by former environment secretary Horacio Ramos, in his paper, “Opportunities and Threats to the Competitiveness of the Philippine Mineral Industry, delivered during the recent China-ASEAN business and investment summit…

MANILA, Philippines – Stakeholders in the mining sector yesterday urged the government to run after small-scale miners in line with efforts to impose additional tax on the mining industry. The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines said the government should go after those not paying taxes at all, like the small-scale miners, instead of picking…

Manila, Philippines – The Chamber of Mines, along with the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce, the Australia Philippines Business Council and the Philippine Australia Business Council has come out with a consolidated position paper on mineral resource development.

In the narrative of Mindanao, big business is often portrayed as the bad guy, concerned only with the bottom line. [This also applies to other parts of the country.] So we hear of big businesses that bribe government officials to get favors. We see local communities and NGOs fighting companies that ignore human rights and…

CANBERRA — Businessmen yesterday called on the Aquino government to hold off from tightening regulations on mining, rejecting a plan by the Environment department to declare mines as “mineral reservations” to hike tax revenues.

CANBERRA — The Aquino administration will work out a “political solution” to problems hounding mining investments in the country, the Trade department said as it issued assurances of support in a meeting with counterparts in Australia, a major mining investor.

MANILA, Philippines –  Leaders of an indigenous people’s (IP) group from Palawan sought yesterday to stop the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) from issuing permits to mining companies encroaching on ancestral lands in the province.