Mining investments reach $1.4B as of last year
Reinir Padua
Philippine Star
Investments in the Philippine mining industry reached a total of $1.4 billion by the end of last year, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources reported yesterday.
According to the DENR, the amount came from exploration, mining operation, and construction and development activities of some 63 mining companies from 2004 to 2007.
Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza said the biggest chunk of the investments amounting to $304.59 million came from the Palawan HPAL Nickel Project (Line 1) being operated by Coral Bay Mining Corp. (CBMC) in Rio Tuba, Bataraza in Palawan.
He said the firm’s expansion project contributed an additional $230 million in 2007. CBMC is a Filipino-Japanese joint venture involved in nickel mining.
Atienza said the second largest investment, amounting to $230 million, came from Palawan HPAL Nickel Project (Line 2), an expansion project also being operated by CBMC in Bataraza, Palawan; while the third largest mining investment during the period amounting to $169 million came from Carmen (Toledo) Copper Project operated by Carmen Copper Corp. in Don Andres Soriano in Toledo City.
The DENR chief also noted that since the start of the mining revitalization program in 2004, some 6,500 new jobs have been created by the industry.
He said more than 30,000 jobs are expected to be generated from 2008 to 2010.
“The government’s revitalization program remains on track and with seven more projects coming on stream. The year 2008 will be a banner for the minerals industry,” Atienza said in a statement.
He said the government is expecting mining investments to reach $1.8 billion by the end of the year as seven more projects advance into production this year, with additional investments amounting to $300 million.
These projects are Carmen Copper Project, Didipio Copper-Gold Project, second line of the Palawan Nickel Project, Masbate Gold Projects of Filipino-Australian joint venture, Filminera Resources Corp., Iligan and Manticao Ferronickel Smelter Plants of Platinum Group Mining Corp. and another Filipino-Australian consortium Philsaga Gold Project of Philsaga Mining Corp.
“With all these projects going into production, we expect our mineral output to increase to a level which would turn the Philippines into a mining country by 2009,” Atienza said.
Under the World Bank standards, a country with mining exports reaching six percent of its total exports is considered “a mining country.”
Atienza said the Philippines’s metallic mineral production, which was estimated at P95 billion last year, could reach more than P120 billion next year, a significant increase that could raise the mining industry’s exports contribution to six percent of the total Philippine exports.
“We are also confident that by 2010-2011, we already have a $10-billion industry that can sustainably generate income to our government and help provide social benefits down to the poorest of the poor in the countryside,” he said.
Of the 63 mining projects currently pouring in investments in the country’s mining industry, 10 are operating, seven are in the construction and development stage, nine are under feasibility and financing stage, another nine in advance exploration stage, five projects under the second tier projects which are highly potential projects that are still undergoing funding negotiations, and 23 priority exploration projects.
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