DENR to bid out 5-million hectares of idle mining claims

MANILA, Philippines - Parts of some five million hectares of currently “non-moving” mining tenements may be bid out by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) before the year ends, Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Director Leo Jasareno saod yesterday.

Jasareno said the guidelines for the bidding process are being drawn up and an initial draft will be ready for submission to the DENR by next week.

The guidelines will be patterned after those that are being used by the Philippine Mining Development Corp. (PMDC) and the Natural Resources Development Corp. (NRDC), Jasareno said.

According to Jasareno, there are an initial 180 cancelled or denied mining tenements may be publicly bid out by the end of this year. These tenements form part of once five million hectares that the DENR hopes to finally free up and re-bid to interested investors who will actually operate the mines and not merely engage in speculative land-banking.

The bidding guidelines would be “simple” and “transparent” to allay and prevent any suspicion of corruption and level the playing field for all investors, Jasareno said, adding that the proposed guidelines would also ensure that the National Government would get its proper share of revenues and that safeguards are in place against non-performance.

The proposed guidelines would set forth the payment of upfront commitment fees, signing fees, goodwill fees and even a five per cent royalty.

Under the present “first come, first served” application process, the investor only needs to file an application and after approval pays P60,000 per hectare of the area applied for.

Jasareno said the new process would make it more costly for investors while ensuring that the government gets its fair share of revenues and get rid of speculators.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon Paje had earlier announced the shift to a public bidding process, stressing the need to weed out “speculators” would merely apply for mining tenements for speculation, land-banking or to use the tenements to list in the local stock market and raise funds but without actually operating the mine.

Paje revealed that out of 2,800 approved tenements, only 30 are actually operating.

The DENR, in line with its policy of “use it or lose it” is currently reviewing all non-moving tenements and cancelling those that have been inactive for several years so that they can be offered to interested parties.