Marcventures steps up greening program

Marcventures Mining and Development Corp. (MMDC) has inked an agreement with the government to intensify the rehabilitation of open and degraded forest lands in the country.

MMDC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of listed Marcventures Holdings Inc., recently signed a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) for its participation in the Adopt a National Greening Project Site program.

The mining company will allot P6.3 million based on a three-year work and financial plan that covers the production, procurement and planting of over 280,000 quality assorted seedlings and the three-year maintenance and protection of a 200-hectare plantation.

This joint undertaking is the first of its kind, with MMDC being the first mining company to partner with DENR and MGB on the project.

“We support the mandate of the President and the DENR to strengthen and accelerate mine rehabilitation through the government’s flagship reforestation program dubbed as the Enhanced National Greening Program,” MMDC vice chairman Isidro Alcantara said.

He added that MMDC continues to speed up and improve its rehabilitation initiatives through other environmental projects that pursue sustainable livelihood development and translate to economic benefits including its bamboo plantation project and the growing of cash crops like cacao and coffee.

The MOA is part of MMDC’s efforts to comply with the government’s prior directive to plant more trees in mine sites.

MMDC holds a mineral production sharing agreement covering 4,799 hectares in Cantilan in Surigao del Sur. It exports its nickel ores to China.

This year, MMDC expects its net income to climb to P200 million from P110 million last year. This despite the expected 10 percent decline in nickel ore shipments to two million wet metric tons from 2.2 million WMT in 2017.