Roadmap needed on dev't of more ore processing plants

Agovernment-led roadmap is still needed to see if more mineral processing plants should really be built in order for the mining sector to further prove its existence in the country.

Mercedita Sombilla, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Environment Staff, said a roadmap should be developed in order to further study the need to develop more mineral processing plants in the Philippines and how it should boost the country's mining sector.

According to the NEDA official, despite the sector's economic potential, mining industry's contribution to the Philippine economy remained very low.

Then she emphasized one possible reason the sector is failing to prosper is because the companies were not exerting more effort to add value to the minerals they export.

"We also have low number of processing plants. We currently have four now — two gold processing plants and two nickel processing plants," Sombilla said. "On the economic front, the challenge here is the limited value-addition of minerals."

She also said the development of more processing plants will eventually make the mining sector's growth more inclusive because they will create more jobs.

"We really need a roadmap. It is really necessary because as of now, it is not yet clear and there's no direction. What is clear on my part is that the total closure of mining sector will have a clear impact on gross domestic product [GDP]. That is one of the risk factors," Sombilla told reporters.

To recall, Senator Cynthia Villar earlier said that more processing plants should be built in the Philippines so that miners could extract more value from the country's mineral resources at the same time generate more jobs.

According to her, the country must follow the trend in Indonesia wherein the government has banned the export of raw mineral ore.

But Nelia Halcon, the executive vice president of Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP), said it is something the government should not impose on companies because building a processing plant will require "billions of dollars" of capital and not everyone may have enough money for it.

"Just encourage it. I don’t think you should impose just like what Indonesia did. As of now, there are conflicts there and not everyone can follow with their impositions. In here, it's also hard for Filipinos to be imposed so it’s better if you will just encourage and direct them," Halcon said.