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Manila miners on the
move
MANILA - Three hundred
carefully invited investors - including a
delegation of 25 from China - were given a clear
message at a mining conference in Manila recently:
the Philippines is open for mining business, and
only responsible miners need apply.
"We're
here to attract miners who are willing to follow
[our] ideals in a balanced approach," said
Benjamin Philip Romualdez, conference chairman and
President of the Philippine Chamber of Mines.
Romualdez said: "We emphasize responsible mining -
miners must adhere to environmental responsibility
so that all stakeholders (miners and local
communities) are protected."
Romualdez
said he had weeded out dubious companies wanting
to attend the conference, to drive home the
message to Philippine stakeholders that the mining
sector, scarred by environmental disasters and
incompetent policymaking, would be carefully
managed this time round. While noting China's
intense interest in Philippine mines, Romualdez
skirted the controversial issue of China's poor
record in mining safety and environmental
safeguards, and often poor technology. The
Chinese, he said, would need to comply with
Philippine laws like everybody else. "We have very
strict laws here," he stressed. "It will be like
this: Philippine laws, Filipino workers, Western
technology and Chinese capital."
The
adrenalin has been pumping in the mining industry
since the Supreme Court in December reversed an
earlier decision and declared the 1995 Mining Act
constitutional. The Financial Technical Assistance
Agreement (FTAA), a regulation of the Act allowing
100% foreign ownership in exploration and mines
development, was also deemed legal. It had taken
one year for the government of President Gloria
Arroyo to succeed in its lobbying to the Supreme
Court to reverse its earlier ruling.
Implications of the court reversal were
immediate. Dormant mines began stirring. Atlas
Mining, previously one of the country's major
copper producers, suddenly settled its decade-old
property tax quarrel with the city of Toledo in
Cebu, central Philippines, so that it could resume
operations. Lepanto Consolidated Mining secured a
US$183 million loan from Canada's Ivanhoe Mines.
Semirara Mining, the largest producer of coal,
which was on the last leg of an international
stock offering roadshow in Hong Kong and
Singapore, suddenly jacked up its price to P46
($.84) per share, from P36. When it listed on the
Philippine Stock Exchange on February 4, the
shares closed at P48.58. The proceeds from the
listing were enough to wipe out its entire debt,
the company declared.
Earlier, in January,
Philippine officials led by two ministers -
Secretary of Trade and Industry Cesar Purisima and
Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources
Michael Defensor - rushed to China. One day of
fast talking in Beijing yielded $1.3 billion in
pledges from Chinese state companies to invest in
Philippine mines.
Romualdez said $3
billion in investment pledges had been secured, of
which $800 million was pledged by Australian firms
Indophil Resources and Climax-Arimco. Said Tony
Robbins, president of the Philippine Mineral
Exploration Association: "We are now going to have
access to world-class best practices."
Robbins shared his own dogged experience
in trying to revive the Philippine's moribund
mining sector. He came to the Philippines as
representative of Australia's Western Mining Corp,
one of the first foreign groups attracted by the
1995 Mining Act and FTAA. After Western Mining
decided it could no longer suffer the uncertainty
of legal challenges, Robbins formed an
international consortium, IndoPhil Resources, to
buy out Western Mining's Tampacan project in
Mindanao in 2002. Robbins said the Tampacan mine
should be reaching production stage by the end of
2009. That will require investment of $100 million
per year and create 3,500 jobs.
Philippine
miners now hope the country can recapture its
former eminence as one of the world's top mineral
producers. In 1980, the Philippines was the
world's fifth-largest gold producer and the
ninth-largest copper producer. It earned $1.2
billion that year from mineral exports, which
contributed 2% of the gross domestic product
(GDP). By 2003, minerals only fetched $500 million
in export earnings.
According to
Romualdez, 23 mining projects have been identified
as ready for commercialization. These will produce
gold, copper, nickel, bauxite and aluminum, and
require total investment of $7 billion. Jose
Leviste Jr, chairman of the Australia-Philippine
joint venture Climax-Arimco Mining, said another
message of the conference was that there would now
be the opportunity to turn the Philippine economy
into a commodities-driven one rather than compete
with the other "Tigers" of East Asia in
manufacturing and services.
The
Philippines has taken its roadshow abroad to more
mining conferences, including a meeting in Endaba,
South Africa, Canada and Singapore. Romualdez said
he wants to help set the stage for a sustainable
mining model for the Association of Southeast
Asian Nation (ASEAN) region. "Indonesia has
similar problems [with environmental degradation
and community opposition], and Vietnam is opening
up its mines as well," said Romualdez, who is
concurrently president of the ASEAN Federation of
Mining Associations.
The mining sector has
also been heartened by President Arroyo's
appointment of veteran diplomat Delia Albert,
former Philippine Ambassador to Australia, as her
special coordinator. Albert, who has a proactive
and "Mrs Fixit" reputation, will oversee
coordination between the projects and their
stakeholders, including the national government,
local governments, NGOs, community groups and
church leaders.
(Asia Pulse/Asia Today) |
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