Atienza sees additional investments in mining

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Jose L. Atienza is confident that mining companies which have already invested in the country will dramatically boost their investments in the next three years.

Atienza told global mining investors and ranking state mining officials from different parts of the world attending the Asia Mining Congress in Singapore that the Philippine mining industry projects the sector to sustain its growth, and even seeing its output spiraling by as much as five times to $10 billion by 2011.

Atienza leads the Philippine delegation in the international mining conference.

“The bulk of the projected investments,” Atienza said, “are expected to come in between 2008 and 2010 when the bigger, world-class mining investors progress to the construction and development stages.”

Forty mining processing and exploration projects, together with 23 other exploration projects have invested a total of $1.4 billion from 2004 to end of 2007, Atienza said.

These have potential additional investments of another $9 billion up to 2011 for a total of $10.4 billion, Atienza said.

Atienza said DENR projections show dramatic increases in volume of mineral production beginning this year in almost all sub-sectors: gold, nickel, copper, chromite, cobalt, zinc, ferronickel and calcined nickel.

The projections also cover the priority projects and were based on their submitted production schedule.

“The rise in production volume will expectedly raise the production value of the minerals industry, which is seen to reach over $10 billion, almost five times that of 2007’s $3 billion,” he said.

Atienza that “it is expected that at such level, the Philippine minerals industry’s contribution to Philippine exports will be in the vicinity of 6.5 percent, enough for the Philippines to be classified as a ‘mining country’ (based on World Bank standards).”

Meanwhile, Atienza has assured foreign investors that the Philippine government is seriously addressing the security challenges being faced by some mining projects, even as he stressed that these are only isolated cases.

In a television interview with Bloomberg in Singapore, Atienza said the protection of mining projects from terrorist  attacks  is among the concerns being addressed by President Arroyo as manifested the creation of an Investment Defense Force (IDF).

Atienza admitted that there are some isolated cases of negative reactions to mining projects, “but we are addressing these in a very committed way. The President no less created an Investment Defense Force which is a specialized group to deal very effectively in this matter.”

Atienza also cited the existence of a very active Mineral Development Council (MDC) which addresses the concerns and issues being faced by mining investors and the industry in general. 

Atienza explained that the MDC, a cabinet-level body which he also heads, immediately addressed the recent attacks made by the New Peoples Army (NPA) on certain mining assets.