Australia miners hope new DENR leadership brings policy stability
AUSTRALIAN mining investors are pinning their hopes on policy stability with the installation of new leadership at the Environment department.
“It’s a time of uncertainty in the mining sector in the Philippines. Australian companies have a lot of investments here which have been impacted by some of the policies of the administration,” Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Amanda Gorley said in an interview with BusinessWorld at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza.
“They’re hopeful that under the new secretary we see an increasing transparency and fairness and implementation of the rules as meant to be applied so that they can continue to progress in their operations here. It’s a positive step for Secretary (Roy A.) Cimatu to be in the role and that’s something we very much welcome,” she added while speaking on the sidelines of the annual Philippine mining conference.
In February, former Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez ordered 26 of the country’s 41 metal mines shuttered and suspended a review of the operations of all operating metal mines.
Ms. Lopez then announced that the government will cancel the contracts of 75 mining projects that have not yet operated due to their location within or near watersheds.
She also ordered a ban on prospective open-pit mines the day before she was rejected by the Commission on Appointments (CA) in May.
Mining companies scrambled to appeal these orders either before the Department of Environment and Natural Resources or with the Office of the President.
A former general, Mr. Cimatu, who took over following Ms. Lopez’s rejection, is set to face on Wednesday the same CA which rejected his predecessor. He has not reversed any of the policy decisions of Ms. Lopez and instead left the job to the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) which intends to review the closure and suspension orders as well as the ban on the open pit method.
“Open- pit mining is the most efficient way in many circumstances to obtain minerals from under the ground. So ruling it out would resolve issues for a number of projects that have become uneconomic,” said Bradley Norman, Country Director of Melbourne-based OceanaGold ( Philippines), Inc. in an interview last week, while expressing confidence that the president will consider the method.
The company’s Didipio mine which straddles Nueva Vizcaya and Quezon broke ground using the now- banned method but currently operates through drilling.
OceanaGold’s Mr. Norma said the law remains sufficient to ensure a responsible mining industry and the failure to strictly implement it opens doors for violators to damage the environment.
“There’s no problem at all with the mining act,” Mr. Norman said.
“The regulations are in place to have an effective mining industry. It’s those regulations that should be absolutely monitored and the regulations should be enforced. There is a very good responsible mining industry in the Philippines,” he added.
In 2016, OceanaGold accounted for the second-biggest share of gold output at 20% or 4,576 kilograms out of the 22,674 kilograms produced by among large-scale metal companies.
The company holds a financial or technical assistance agreement — a mining agreement that allows foreigners to be contractors of the country’s minerals for a certain period.
“Regrettably, there is also a lot of mining which is not responsible,” Mr. Norman added. “A lot of which is small scale mining, a lot of mid-scale mining. But it’s not being monitored. It’s causing so much damage to the environment.”
Large-scale mines have been pointing to these unregulated miners as the main culprits behind the environmental destruction that has been attributed to the industry overall, painting a negative picture of all miners.—