B for sustainable dev’t

In total, the country's untapped mineral resources are projected to have a combined value of over $1 trillion.

Based on MGB's estimates, the country's total estimated gold reserves in 2016 stood at 1.9 billion metric tons (MT) with an average grade of 0.16 grams per ton, while silver has 1.7 billion MT with an average grade of 1.27 grams per ton.

Copper reserves, on the other hand, were estimated to be around 1.8 billion MT, while iron and nickel has reserves of 116 million MT and 116.14 million MT, respectively. Chromite's reserves stood around 47.3 million MT.

"To make them useful to the economy, the rich mineral resources of the Philippines have to be explored and then developed into commercial mines. Mining is both a capitalintensive and highly technical business venture," MGB earlier said.

However, President Rodrigo Duterte repeatedly said before that he doesn’t care whether the country earns huge revenues from the mining sector if this means preventing the further degradation of the environment.

MGB, an attached agency to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), recently issued a set of new mining policies such as creating a scorecard that will measure and monitor the operation of mining companies as well as limiting the area where miners can operate at any given time.

The DENR is also looking at increasing the rehabilitation funds that are required of miners.

Under the Philippine Mining Act, a Mine Rehabilitation Fund (MRF) shall be deposited as a trust fund in a government depository bank and shall be used for physical and social rehabilitation of areas and communities affected by mining activities and for research on the social, technical and preventive aspects of rehabilitation.

For his part, Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) Executive Director Ronald Recidoro earlier said that they "understand the concern and the need to ensure that there are adequate funds for environmental protection and rehabilitation of mined out areas".

"If there's really a need to spend more for rehabilitation, we have no choice but to spend for it," he said in an earlier report.