MGB starts survey for REE deposits

MANILA, Philippines - The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) is now surveying an old iron mine in the municipality of Jose Panganiban in Camarines Norte for rare earth elements (REE) deposits.

MGB director Leo Jasareno said the environs of the now defunct Philippine Iron Mines (PIM) are being surveyed for scandium and etrium deposits.

PIM, which ceased operations in the 1980s, was once the biggest iron mine in Asia.

Jasareno said the volume of REE deposits in the old mine is still “indeterminate at this time.”

The Philippines is now pushing for the development of REE deposits to capture a piece of the market dominated  by China.

REEs are a group of elements used in a wide range of electronic products and other high technology applications.

Recognized as REEs are Scandium, Yttrium, Lanthanum, Cerium, Praseodymium, Promethium, Samarium, Europium, Gadolinium, Terbium, Dysprosium, Holmium, Erbium, Thulium, Ytterbium, Lutetium.

China recognized the importance of these elements decades ago and now supplies 97 percent of the REE needs of the world.

Early this year, the MGB began surveying copper, gold and nickel mines in Palawan and Nueva Vizcaya for REE deposits that could be used in commercial production.

Survey sites include the Runruno gold project of FCF Corporation and Didipio copper-gold project of Oceanagold Phils Inc. in Nueva Vizcaya.

The bureau said these sites are considered to have potential REE levels due to the affinity of alkaline host rocks to granite like those found in China and Thailand.

Likewise, the laterite deposits in Berong and Ipilan nickel areas in Palawan were sampled because these have been repeatedly reported to contain values of Samarium, Europium and Scandium.

The coastal sediments in northeastern Palawan were also sampled for possible presence of REE-bearing monazite, alanite and bastnasite minerals. The bureau is testing if these sites have REE deposits   similar to the nearshore to offshore sand deposits in EI Nido and San Vicente, Palawan.

The preliminary samples would be analyzed by petrographic, mineralogic, sedimentologic and chemical methods at MGB’s PETROLAB and laboratories overseas.

 The other survey areas include Pangasinan (hydrothermal clays), Isabela (Cordon syenite), Baguio district (alkaline rocks and copper/gold deposits), Davao Oriental and Camarines Norte (pegmatites and iron-skarn deposits), northern Palawan (Capoas granite) and the nickel deposits in the mining tenements of Intex Resources Inc. in Mindoro Oriental and Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp. in Palawan that were both recently reported to be planning to recover Scandium from their laterite ores.

The MGB is spending around P500 million for the reconnaissance survey this year.

The MGB has also revived talks with the Chinese Geological Survey (CGS) for the identification of REE exploration sites in the Philippines.

MGB assistant director Elmer Billedo visited China on May 8 to resume talks with the CGS.

“The talks went well and it seems that the CGS is still interested (in partnering with the MGB),” said Jasareno. “We are still continuing dialogues with them.”

For the meantime, he said, the Philippines would continue all REE reconnaissance activities.

Experts from the China Geological Survey (CGS), a Chinese government-owned entity, were expected to arrive in the Philippines last March 2012 for the identification of REE sites. CGS was supposed to fund the REE exploration program while the MGB would allot around P20 million for its field expenses.

Communication with CGS, however, stopped at the height of the military standoff at Panatag shoal early this year.

Jasareno said that if the CGS declines to cooperate with the Philippine government, the MGB would seek full financial support from the government to carry out a full REE exploration program on its own.

The full exploration program, which will take place in five years if uninterrupted, consists of three phases: reconnaissance, semi-detailed survey and detailed survey.

This will enable the government to determine if the country has commercial deposits.