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Miners on the move in
Manila
MANILA - Three
hundred carefully invited investors - including a
delegation of 25 from China - were given a clear
message at a three-day mining conference in Manila
in February: 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.
"We
emphasized responsible mining - that miners must
adhere to environmental responsibility so that all
stakeholders [miners and local communities] are
protected," Romualdez told Asia Today
international (ATI).
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
around.
While noting China's intense
interest in Philippine mines, Romualdez also
skirted around the controversial issue of China's
poor record in mining safety and environmental
safeguards, as well as its 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."
Mining madness
The
adrenalin has been rushing in the mining industry
since the Supreme Court in December reversed its
earlier decision and declared the 1995 Mining Act
constitutional.
The Financial Technical
Assistance Agreement (FTAA), a regulation of the
Mining 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 Macapagal-Arroyo to succeed in
its lobby 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 road show
in Hong Kong and Singapore, suddenly jacked up its
price to P46 (US 84 cents) 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 mining company
declared.
Earlier, in January, Philippine
officials led by two ministers, Cesar Purisima,
secretary of trade and industry, and Michael
Defensor, secretary of the environment and natural
resources, 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.
At the close of the
conference, Romualdez said $3 billion in
investment pledges had been secured, of which $800
million was pledged by Australian firms Indophil
Resources and Climax-Arimco.
Tony Robbins,
president of the Philippine Mineral Exploration
Association, told ATI: "We are now going to have
access to world-class best practices."
At
the conference, Robbins shared his own dogged
experience in trying to revive the Philippine's
moribund mining sector. He came to the Philippines
as a representative of Australia's Western Mining
Corp, one of the first foreign groups attracted to
the country 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 reach the production
stage by the end of 2009. That will require
investment of $100 million per year and create
3,500 jobs.
Back on
top
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 gross
domestic product. By 2003, however, 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 one that
competes with the other "tigers" of East Asia in
manufacturing and services.
The
Philippines has also taken its road show abroad to
more mining conferences. These including a
February 9 meeting in Endaba, South Africa, the
March 6-9 Prospects and Development Conference in
Canada and the March 22-25 Asian Mining Conference
in Singapore.
Romualdez said he wants to
help set the stage for a sustainable mining model
for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) region.
"Indonesia has similar
problems [on 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, the
former Philippine ambassador to Australia, as her
special coordinator.
Albert, who has a
proactive, "Mrs Fix It" reputation, will oversee
coordination between the projects and the
stakeholders, from the national government down to
local government, non-governmental organizations,
community groups and church leaders.
(Asia Pulse. Analysis from Asia
Today.) |
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