The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) plans to unlock the nation’s untapped mineral resources by issuing new regulatory policies within the next few months.
This was announced during a plenary session at the Mining Philippines 2025 Conference and Exhibition at the Grand Hyatt Manila on Wednesday (Oct. 22, 2025), by DENR Undersecretary for Integrated Science, Prof. Carlos Primo David.
He said that DENR is looking at increasing mining’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 0.5% to about 2%.
“The regulations are part of the overall strategy to unlock the natural resources of the country,” he said.
“A draft Executive Order on the critical minerals framework is like the little sister of the fiscal regime, which, as I see it, is to correct and clarify some of the regulations in the 1995 Mining Act,” David, a licensed geologist and expert in environmental science, said.
He stressed that the DENR Mines and Geosciences Bureau will also start strictly implementing the “Use it or Lose It Policy for Mining Tenements.”
He said, “It will spur even more development when we release these mineral assets that are there but not used.”
Usec. David added that the DENR-MGB is also looking at strengthening the protection of mining investments from unilateral adverse policy shifts, such as retroactive amendments to local ordinances, including zoning restrictions, bans on certain mining methods, or arbitrary changes to fiscal regimes. Additionally, DENR-MGB is planning to standardize a transparent valuation methodology for FPIC negotiations while preserving indigenous agreements.
He mentioned that the provision of royalty for IPs is open-ended, which means they can be from 1% to 99%.
However, he said, this needs to be clarified and come up with a regulation on how negotiations will work. DENR-MGB is also reviewing with the hope of extending the 25-year limit of mineral processing permits for long-term investment security. According to Usec. David, there will be a consultation once the Executive Order is ready.
“For the time frame, I would say the first quarter of 2026. An initial draft has been sent to OP.”
The DENR-MGB is also working on an Alternative Registration of small-scale miners. This is to boost small-scale mining that will raise the country’s gold production and Bangko Sentral gold buys.
“Majority of small miners are still undocumented or outside Minahang Bayan areas. What we are looking is a tiered registration procedure for, first, as individual groups, the cooperatives, and Minahang Bayan,” he said.
He said registration allows the BSP to transact with small-scale miners.
“Gold produced from illegal or small-scale miners is about 70%.”
“Last month, as part of the draft E.O. even before that E.O. comes out, we are already planning how to dispose of mineral assets that are not moving. There is a list of cancelled and expired EPs, MPAs, and FTAAs, and they shall be offered through a competitive selection process, like a sort of bidding process, where we will look at the capabilities of bidders,” he said.
“On top of these are areas that are mineralized but still untenured.
“Therefore, we will offer this parcel of land for bidding for you to apply for exploration. If you wish to know how many of these idle assets we are targeting, around 50 assets, and if we are if we do our work, this will be an administrative order. “
“A draft has been crafted, and it now goes to Sec. Lotilla for approval,” he said.
