Mining

THE Chamber of Mines on Monday slammed the Catholic Church for condemning all mining activities in Palawan when some of its members own shares in a mining firm.

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) – President Benigno Aquino III ordered the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to address child labor in the mining industry, a senior government official said today.

MANILA, Philippines- This month marks the 16th anniversary of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, which opened doors wider to mining. Calls for its scrapping resound to this day as pro-environment groups could not warn the government enough about the destruction mining brings.

THE PHILIPPINES remains near the bottom of a list of areas rated yearly on having policies conducive to mining investments.

Press for enactment of new mining law “FOR more than a decade and a half, contrary to the promises of development and prosperity that comes with the enactment of the Mining Act of 1995, the Filipino people have only witnessed and become victims of the havoc that the foreign-dominated mining industry has brought to our…

MANILA, Philippines – Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje has directed all regional directors of the Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau (MGB) to refrain from accepting and processing new mining applications.

MANILA, Philippines – Mining investments for the whole of 2010 amounted to only $955.85 million, way below the adjusted full-year target of $1.2 billion.

But damage to ecology and human communities boost pressure for passage of new mining law THE election of President Benigno Aquino 3rd in May last year immediately buoyed up hopes for and in the mining industry. When he visited the US, he said in speeches there that the mining industry would be a top priority…

ALYANSA Tigil Mina (ATM), a staunch critic of mining operations in the Philippines, said former President Gloria Arroyo’s Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) failed to meet expectations.

THE government has canceled up to 500 inactive mining permits and suspended all large-scale mining applications until the end of the year while it reviews all pending and inactive claims, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said Friday.

MANILA, Philippines—Mining investments in the Philippines increased by more than half in 2010 from 2009 as government support sustained investor interest in the country despite political challenges during the election year, according to stakeholders.

DAVAO CITY — When the South Cotabato governor told media last week that only the courts could stop the provincial government from implementing an open-pit mining ban, he was virtually telling the national government the next recourse to solve the problem.

The government should take prompt and decisive steps in codifying a legally binding set of standards on corporate social responsibility (CSR) tailorfit for the local mining industry, as a way to rebuild public confidence and ease strident protests against certain mining operations resulting from domestic environmental disasters such as the 1996 Marcopper toxic spill, a…

SANTIAGO CITY, Isabela – Anti-mining activists in Nueva Vizcaya have urged the Commission on Human Rights to come up with the report of the investigation the agency conducted last year on human rights violations allegedly committed by a mining firm in the upland mining town of Kasibu.

A PLAN for helping to reach the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, called community-based monitoring System, has been set up by the municipality of Tampakan in South Cotabato, and in Kiblawan and Malalag towns in Davao del Sur—areas sitting on what could be the biggest copper-gold deposit in Southeast Asia.

Nagoya, Japan – Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon Paje said he plans to require mining firms operating in the Philippines to engage in the reforestation of denuded or degraded forest areas.

SIXTEEN mining firms looking to operate in Mindanao raised concerns that illegal small-scale miners will fill in the void created by the open-pit mining ban imposed by the provincial government. The ban is contained in the province’s new Environment Code, which took effect on Monday.

OTTAWA—Canadian mining companies are far and away the worst offenders in environmental, human rights and other abuses around the world, according to a global study commissioned by an industry association but never made public.

In our previous article, we talked about the race between nations to debase their respective currencies in order to spur domestic economic growth (see Currency War, Oct. 11, 2010). We have shown you how – as a result of these currency wars – the US dollar is losing its value. This has also precipitated a…

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) sees substantive infirmities in the provisions of House Bill (HB) 6342. COMP pointed these out in a formal submission to the House of Representatives.

The Alternative Mining Bill (AMB), a.k.a. House Bill (HB) 6342, or the Philippine Mineral Resources Act of 2009, is a proposed policy to scrap the Mining Act of 1995 and introduce a new mining policy, which is anchored on land and natural resources management and human rights-based approach. The bill aims to regulate the rational…

The Philippines is considered the fifth richest mineral resources in the world with a mineral wealth worth more than $840 billion—equivalent to at least 10 times its annual gross domestic product (GDP) and more than 15 times its total foreign debt—remained untapped. Government data show the country to have substantial mineral deposits including copper, gold,…

IF House Bill (HB) 6342 is passed, all mining activities could halt. Is it the Aquino administration’s wish for Congress to pass the Alternative Mining Bill, or House Bill 6342? The bill, which is offered by its authors to replace the existing Mining Act of 1995, contains a provision that calls for a moratorium on…

THE GOVERNMENT has started cancelling the tenure of mining firms on project sites that have been idle, the Environment chief told a group of foreign investors last Tuesday night.

Alex Magno tells us in his September 11 column that we should be concerned about potential mining investors turning their sights away from the country and to Afghanistan. We are talking about billions of dollars, yes, but where does the bulk of the money really go? Not to us. The Arroyo administration’s mineral policy, which…

For years, and column after column to the point of being boring, I’ve pushed for the development of mining. I’ve been devastated by the level of poverty in the Philippines, and the frankly inhuman way far, far too many have to live. So I’ve never understood why the Philippine Catholic Church is so vehemently and…

THE Philippines’ vast area of untapped mineral resources can be converted to multiple investment opportunities in the areas of exploration, development and mineral processing, trade secretary Gregory L. Domingo said.

THE Philippines is fast-becoming a “mining haven” with $14 billion (P619.64 billion) in projected investments from 2009 to 2015 and $11.1 billion (P491.29 billion) in annual revenues starting 2017, according to Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr., president of the Philippine Exporters Federation (PEF).

THE mining industry continues to grow stronger with the continuous flow of investments in the mining sector, with the big players bullish about sustaining growth with a favorable investment climate under the new administration, according to a top industry leader.

Next week, our country will be hosting the Mining Philippines 2010 Conference and Exhibit which targets CEOs and managers of mining companies, heads of exploration projects, investors and financiers, industry analysts and economists, service providers and suppliers and government regulators. Like a pimp, this conference will definitely entice prospective investors to covet our mines and…