COMP to probe own members to achieve cleaner mining sector

Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP), the industry organization of mining companies and of businesses involved in the highly challenged minerals sector, has formed a group tasked to conduct investigations that aim to address the allegations being thrown at its members.

This came after COMP’s decision to restructure its organization, electing new set of officers a few weeks after its member, Apex Mining Co. president and chief executive officer Walter Brown, resigned from the organization.

To recall, Brown expressed his disappointment and frustration with COMP’s response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s call for the mining industry to clean up its acts, saying that they must stop pointing at small-scale miners as reasons why the sector is now under intense scrutiny.

Brown also told COMP members to “clean up their own ranks.”

New COMP chair Gerard Brimo said that although Brown’s resignation doesn’t have anything to do with the group’s board reorganization, he admitted that there’s a need for the group to “police” its members, especially when it comes to adhering to mining law.

“We are now pushing for the creation of oversight committee. What it is tasked to do is carry out investigations, as directed by the board of trustees. If there is an incident from any of us that is serious enough that the board of trustees feel should be investigated, then the oversight committee will step in and get third party experts and conduct investigations,” Brimo said in a briefing on Monday.

“We are heading now towards self-policing. There’s a clamor for that. We get accused of things that have never really happened. A member company can always ask this committee to do investigation,” he added.

According to him, the investigation will come up with recommendations on what should be done with a certain company and can even lead to suspension of membership with COMP.

The findings will also be presented to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

COMP Executive Director Ronald S. Recidoro said in the briefing that the group wants to do the investigation on certain mining issues to be faster than how the government conducts it. Recidoro is previously the group’s vice president for legal and policy.

COMP is also planning to adopt Mining Association of Canada’s (MAC) Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) in terms of qualifying members. TSM is a set of tools and indicators to drive performance and ensure that key mining risks are managed responsibly among the members’ facilities.

Brimo, who also serves as the president and chief executive officer of Nickel Asia Corp., has replaced Artemio Disini, president of Zeus Holdings, as the chair of the group.

As part of the restructuring, Jose Leviste Jr., chair of Oceana Gold Philippines, is now the vice chair of the organization together with Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr., the chairperson of Sagittarius Mines, Inc. and the country’s former defense chief.

The restructuring also came a few weeks after the retirement of Benjamin Philip Romualdez, who had been the group’s president since 2004.

As of now, the position of the president will remain vacant until COMP gets to decide whether they’ll tap a third-party technical person to become a member or will just choose among its members. Nelia C. Halcon retained her position as the organization’s Executive Vice President.

“In the coming months, you will see a new Chamber of Mines. We will be forging ahead with key initiatives, continue with the initiatives that we have started, pushing members to be more transparent through EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative), we want them to adopt international standards to dispel the many misconceptions that are affecting the industry,” Recidoro said.