Local mining sector adopts Canada model

As it continues to police its ranks, the country’s mining industry is set to adopt Canadian practices, which have been globally recognized for its standards.

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) said officials of the Mining Association of Canada are arriving in the country by December to launch the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) program.

“We can sign this in December because it will take us about a year or more to implement it. The TSM has gone beyond Canada, it is global now,” COMP chairman Gerard Brimo told reporters on the sidelines of the 38th board meeting of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative on Wednesday night.

“There has been a lot of mining associations from other countries that have adopted it and some are in the process of doing that. We will do the same, we have decided that we will adopt this initiative,” he said.

The TSM is a program and set of protocols to drive performance and ensure that key mining risks are managed responsibly. It has been adopted in other mineral-rich countries like Finland, Nigeria, and Australia among others.

Established in 2004, TSM aims to enable mining companies to meet society’s needs for minerals, metals and energy products in the most socially, economically and environmentally responsible way.

“It is quite an elaborate program. It will take time and we need to get started. The first step is to sign the agreement, then there will be workshops to be conducted for the members,” said Brimo, who is also the president of listed Nickel Asia Corp.