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The government may jointly develop with investors, or sell the mining rights of more than 65 abandoned mines, Bureau of Mines and Geosciences director Horacio Ramos said yesterday.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Angelo Reyes transferred to Philippine Mining Development Corp., the corporate arm of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the mining rights to more than 65 abandoned mines with a combined land area of 68,625 hectares.

Overseas companies, including Anglo American Plc, the world’s second-largest mining company, are partnering with local miners in exploring in the Philippines, which the government estimates may have $1 trillion in mineral wealth. The companies plan to benefit from global demand for raw materials driven by China.

Philippine Mining Development Corp. “may be able to generate revenue by bidding out these cancelled mining rights,’’ Ramos said in a phone interview yesterday. “The government can also opt to develop these projects with the private sector’’ through state-run Natural Resources and Mining Development Corp.

The cancellation of the mining permits for abandoned mines “will enable the entry of more serious investors, thus further spurring development and economic activity in the mining sector,’’ Reyes said last Monday.

The Philippines plans to sell state-run mining assets to help attract as much as $6.7 billion in investments in a sector which accounted for only 1.5 percent of the country’s $117 billion economy.

Reyes said he transferred the mining rights cancelled by the government in 2005 after contractors failed to pursue mining activities on the ground “over a long period of time,” without citing a period.                 

Meanwhile, total investment in the Philippine mining sector is expected to hit $10 billion by 2010 once the mining projects of BHP Billiton, Xstrata and Sumitomo all come in Chamber of Mines president Benjamin Philip Romualdez said yesterday.

In a talk with newsmen at the sidelines of the Chamber of Mines’ lecture forum on Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Romualdez said that a potential investment of $4 billion alone would come from Billiton, Xstrata and Sumitomo.

BHP Billiton’s potential investment is around $1 billion.

Xstrata had already committed $2 billion, while Sumitomo recently announced its investment of $1 billion.

Actual investments in the mining sector, however, amounted to only $100 million last year, Romualdez said.

For this year, the projected actual investment is P350 million and for 2008, actual investment is expected to hit $1 billion.