The Philippines has lifted a four-year ban on new open-pit mines, an official said yesterday, in a bid to revitalize the country’s COVID-19-battered economy that has been slammed by environmentalists as “short-sighted.”
The move sees the government reverse a ban imposed in 2017, when the then-Philippine secretary of environment and natural resources blamed the sector for widespread ecological damage.
Manila has since reversed course, encouraging mining investments to shore up government revenues as lockdowns and COVID-19 quarantine restrictions ravaged the economy.
In April, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte — who had previously threatened to shut down the sector completely — lifted a nine-year ban on new mining deals set by his predecessor.
Philippine Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Wilfredo Moncano yesterday said that Philippine Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources Roy Cimatu had signed an order lifting the ban on open-pit mining in the country.
“We offered the mining [industry] as a potential contributor to the recovery of the economy,” Moncano said. “Once these are commercially producing ... these are the ones that will be helping pay our loans to fight the [COVID-19] pandemic.”
About nine prospective mining projects stand to benefit from the order, Moncano said, adding that the government could generate up to 80 billion pesos (US$1.57 billion) in taxes and royalties annually once commercial operations begin.
Open-pit mining directly extracts minerals on the ground and differs from other methods that require tunneling or underground mining.
The Philippines is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of nickel ore, and is also rich in copper and gold, but the government estimates that 95 percent of its mineral resources remain untapped.
Mining revenues contributed less than 1 percent of GDP to the economy last year, government data showed.
The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines welcomed the decision to lift the ban, saying it “will enable the industry to contribute more to our country’s economic recovery.”
However, mining opponents said the decision was a “short-sighted and misplaced development priority of the government.”
“Once again, the Duterte regime puts more premium to its flawed economic agenda categorizing destructive mining as an ‘essential industry’ as part of the pandemic recovery,” the Alliance to End Mining said in a statement.
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