The solution to Mining is "small-scale mining" approach

Solution is to control

“The solution is not to ban mining but to control it,” he said.

“We must have mining. It’s just impossible to live without mines 

and you can’t say do it somewhere else. It’s un-Christian,” 

Wallace said.

Wallace, an Australian expatriate and longtime Philippine

 resident, said that if the Philippines were to harness 

mining, it would create hundreds of thousands more

jobs, build more roads and bring basic utilities like

Nickel samples

water and electricity to the communities.

But if the government were to ban mining, 

illegal mining would still exist, he said.

Brimo said mining, tourism and agriculture were not

mutually exclusive and these industries could

co-exist with each other.

Brimo also shrugged off concerns on the 

environmental footprint of mining, noting that 

it’s very difficult to find viable mining sites

anywhere in the world. He noted that only 62,000 

hectares, or 0.2 percent of the land mass in the country 

was covered by mining claims.

Out of every 25,000 mining prospects in the world, only 

500 will be seriously explored and only one will become 

a live mining project, he said.

Very strict parameters

Lawyer Christian Monsod, a consultant for the Manila 

Electric Co., said he was in favor of mining 

but under very strict parameters.

He said mining could benefit the country 

if four conditions are met: that environmental 

and social costs are accounted for; that the 

country gets full share of value of extracted 

minerals; the institutional capacity of 

government must be put in place; and money 

for mining must be used to create new capital,

including human capital and boost infrastructure 

in the countryside.

At a press briefing after the forum, Chamber of

 Mines president Philip Romualdez said 

small-scale mining must be subjected to the 

same regulatory net as large-scale miners and 

it would take political will to do so.

Although tourism is another potential growth 

driver for the Philippines as cited by 

environmentalists, Pangilinan said most mining sites 

were not ideal for tourism.

“Our mines in Padcal and Surigao are hardly suitable 

for tourism, simply because they don’t have the features 

of an attractive tourist site. And even if tourism were 

possible, we must ask: Are the expected returns from 

tourism comparable to the benefits which mining can 

provide?” Pangilinan said.

“Mining is not the enemy, poverty is,” he said.

Pangilinan also said a government plan to introduce 

the concept of “total economic value,” or TEV, 

in assessing mining opportunities was “intangible, 

elusive and extremely subjective.”

“How does one quantify and test the value 

attached to the beauty of a sunset, the feel of 

early morning mist or the music of water rippling 

through a stream?” he said.

Industry not perfect

In his presentation, Pangilinan admitted that the 

mining industry was not perfect, which sometimes 

leads to perception that mining is dangerous and 

destructive. He suggested the following:

That national and local policies on mining need to 

be harmonized and the cooperation of local government 

units must be procured in order to subject small-scale 

miners to the same regulation as large-scale miners;

That the capacity and competence of state regulators 

be improved, particularly in regard to equipment and 

quantity and quality of regulatory staff;

That there must be an independent environmental 

commission responsible for supervising and enforcing 

environmental concerns;

That the private sector be open to a profit-sharing 

scheme which will assure the government of a more 

appropriate share in the benefits derived from resources; and

That mining benefits between host local government 

units and the national government be shared more equitably.

It was during his discussion of the Padcal mine in 

Benguet that Pangilinan inadvertently brought the 

face-off to a climax when he figured in a heated 

exchange with environmentalist Regina Lopez, 

managing director of the ABS-CBN Foundation.

Government for mining

Government representatives at the forum indicated 

that government was not against mining but that 

the industry should be made to cough up more 

money, mainly because of its bad track record in the 

Philippines and the country’s need for more revenues.

In a speech at the conference, Jasareno said the 

extractive industry should not run away from its 

responsibility to the environment and the people.

Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said the provision 

imposing a 5 percent royalty fee on top of the 2 

percent excise tax that mining companies are already 

paying would not be changed in the executive order on 

the new mining policy that is being drafted by Malacañang.

Those who want to amend this should bring their case

to the President, said Paje as he stressed that the mining

 industry is getting finite resources from the Philippines.

According to Jasareno, the government recognizes the 

value of the country’s abundant mineral resources like 

gold, copper, iron and nickel, and the need to work 

with the mining industry.

“The government is aware that left on the ground, 

these minerals cannot generate wealth for the Filipino 

people. And the country needs wealth,” he said.

300K small-scale mines

Jasareno said there are 31 mining companies operating 

in the Philippines. Small-scale miners number between

200,000 and 300,000. Permits and mining claims cover 

1.14 million hectares, or 3.8 percent, of the country’s total land area.

He said there are eight projects in the pipeline that 

will significantly contribute to the country’s mineral 

output in the next two to three years.

The country’s mining sector has been experiencing 

a boom in the past year owing to the high prices 

of precious metals, particularly gold.

In 2011, the metallic mining sector posted a 

gross production value of P122 billion, a 

9-percent increase from the P112 billion posted in 2010.

GDP contribution

Despite the mining industry’s improved earnings 

over the years, however, its contribution to the 

gross domestic product has not increased. 

According to Jasareno, the contribution of 

mining to GDP “has not been able to breach 

the 1.5-percent barrier for a long time now.”

“Mining’s contribution to total exports is also 

similarly situated,” he said.

Paje said the government loses P5 billion every 

year from not collecting royalty fees from mining companies.

Jasareno said the mining industry’s presence

in the Philippines over the years has left communities 

with a “nightmare” in their backyard, giving the entire 

industry the bad image of a despoiler of the environment.

“Mining operations in the past have left behind legacy 

mines, or mines that were simply abandoned by the 

mining operators without doing rehabilitation work. 

They are not just gaping holes, but also sources or 

causes of acid mine drainage, siltation, ghost towns

and other nightmares to the host communities,” he said.

“They have become the rallying point of people who oppose 

new mining projects on the simple understanding that such 

new mining projects will end up as new legacy mines,” 

Jasareno said.