By Louise Maureen Simeon (The Philippine Star) | Updated August 1, 2017 -
12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - The order
banning all prospective open-pit mines in the country will remain in effect and
will be taken up at the interagency Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC),
Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu said.
“It stays. This is a policy and we
at the DENR implement policies. I brought this up during the MICC meeting and
we will be meeting again several weeks from now,” Cimatu said on the sidelines
of the MOA signing between the DENR and the Volunteers Against Crime and
Corruption yesterday.
Before she got rejected by the
Commission on Appointments, former environment chief Gina Lopez banned the
open-pit method of mining for copper, gold, silver and complex ores all over
the country.
Since the appointment of Cimatu,
mining stakeholders have been hopeful Cimatu will reverse the orders of Lopez.
Sought for comment, the Chamber of
Mines of the Philippines (COMP) maintained that it understands Cimatu’s recent
decision, saying the open pit ban is a serious policy decision that needs to be
studied carefully, with due consideration of all impacts and the interests of
all stakeholders.
“We only hope that the matter will
be resolved soon to address the uncertainty currently pervading in the
industry,” COMP legal and policy vice president Ronald Recidoro told The STAR.
“We hope it will be an
evidence-based decision that considers current technology. Open pit mining is
an accepted practice worldwide that is safer than underground mining. Open pit
mines can be fully rehabilitated and transformed for other land uses,” he said.
Among the biggest prospective
open-pit mines are the over $2-billion Pangilinan-led Silangan mine in Surigao
del Norte and the $5.9-billion Tampakan project in South Cotabato, dubbed as
potentially the country’s biggest foreign investment and believed to be one of
the largest gold prospects in the world.
The ban came after Lopez cited
several reasons for the ban including its financial and environmental
liability, deprivation of economic use of the area, continuing adverse impact
on the environment, and its high risk to host communities.
Open-pit is defined as an excavation
or cut made on the surface of the ground for the purpose of extracting ore and which
is open to the surface for the duration of the mine’s life.
The order was issued even if open
pit mining is allowed under the Philippine Mining Act. The Constitution even
gives the state the duty to explore, develop, and utilize the country’s mineral
resources.
Open pits, however, ended up as
perpetual liabilities, causing adverse impacts on the environment, particularly
due to the generation of acidic and heavy metal-laden water, erosion of mine
waste dumps and vulnerability of tailings dams to geological hazards.
Records show that most of the mining
disasters in the country were due to tailings spills associated with open-pit
mining.
However, banning of the open-pit
method may also affect energy supply nationwide, experts said.
Meanwhile, the Interagency Mining
Industry Coordinating Council has yet to release the results of its review on
the mining sites that had been ordered closed or suspended by then former
environment chief Gina Lopez.
According to the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources, no final decision has yet been made yet
after the MICC, co-chaired by the finance department, met last week.
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