Photo Credit: Philippine Nickel Industry Association
The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) is updating the mineral resources and mineral reserves database on state-owned mining assets in preparation for their sale.
About P21 billion in revenue can be generated by 100 mining projects in the pipeline, which can be used to help support economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, the MGB said in a BusinessWorld report.
Updating the list of state-owned mining assets for sale will support government revenue, Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu said.
“This is in preparation for the bidding and sale of mining assets to gain revenue and help the country recover from the economic devastation of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic,” Cimatu said.
MGB Director Wilfredo G. Moncano said some assets under the Privatization and Management Office (PMO) of the Finance Department have sufficient data and can be put up for auction soon.
According to the MGB chief, the PMO and the Philippine Mining Development Corp. are responsible for the sale of the government-owned mining assets via auction.
PMO mining assets include Pacific Nickel Philippines, Inc. in Surigao del Norte; North Davao Mining Property in Davao del Norte; Maricalum Mining Corp. in Negros Occidental; and Marcopper Mining Corp. in Marinduque.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed Executive Order No. 130 on April 14, which removed the nine-year ban on new mineral agreements and allowed the review of current mining deals for potential renegotiation.
MGB Director Wilfredo G. Moncano said some of the information required for a possible sale is the volume of mineral resources and reserves, and the technical basis for the estimates.
“A mineral resource refers to the concentration of materials of economic interest found in the Earth’s crust, while a mineral reserve is the economically mineable portion of a mineral resource,” Moncano said in a statement.
He identified Basay Mining Corp. in Negros Oriental, which ceased operations in 1983, and the Marinduque Mining and Industrial Corp. in Samar, which was foreclosed by the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Philippine National Bank in 1984, as some of the idle government mining assets to undergo the review.
