Mining firms nix DENR's cleansing policy, auction of mining permits

MANILA, Philippines - The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (CMP) is not satisfied with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ “use it or lose it” cleansing policy, as well as its plan to auction off mining permits in the future instead of a “first come, first serve” application process.

According to CMP chairman Artemio Disini, the group is preparing a position paper regarding the DENR’s “use it or lose it” policy as well as its proposed auction plan for mining permits.

In an interview on the sidelines of a Philippine Mining Club meeting in Makati, Disini raised the CMP’s concern following the announcement by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) that it has completed the review and “cleansing” of all mining applications resulting in the denial of 1,606 mining applications all over the country covering about five million hectares of prospective mineral lands.

The MGB had announced that a total of 530 mining applications were endorsed for approval, bringing to a total of 2,136 mining applications with final action rendered or 97 percent of all 2,196 pending mining applications nationwide.

According to Disini, the CMP is seeking a meeting with officials of the MGB to review the process used to approve and deny the applications.

Likewise, Disini said the CMP wants to know how the DENR-MGB plans to auction off the mining permits following the cleansing process.

The CMP merely wants assurance from the DENR-MGB that “they would make sure that the bidders have the technical and financial capability to operate the mine” and that the new auction process “would not be a repeat of the past,” he said.

The DENR-MGB has finally embarked on a cleansing of all mining permit applications since some of the permit applications and holders have been merely holding on to their claims for speculation and have not necessarily undertaken any actual exploration or development activities.

The cleansing process was implemented in February 2010 and covered the period from October 2010 to June 2011. The objective was to cleanse the pending 2,196 mining applications in the MGB, which has an average pendency life of 10 years.

Many sectors of the mining industry have looked at this situation as an impediment to investments.

Serious mining investors can no longer find open areas because of the many speculative mining applications that have blanketed the potential ones.

MGB director Leo L. Jasareno said that the completion of the cleansing process opens a new chapter in the country’s mining tenement system, where only high potential areas with no land use conflicts may be made available for development by serious and qualified mining operators.

He said the DENR is now formulating the guidelines for the management of the re-opened areas.

He cautioned, however, that at least 24 percent of the denied mining applications are covered by motions for reconsideration or appeals. This means that the denied mining applications are not yet final and executory pending their resolution.