BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Listed Apex Mining Co. Inc. is rejoining the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) two years after it left the mining group over policy disagreements.
During the 66th Annual National Mine Safety Environment Conference organized by the Philippine Mine Safety and Environment Association (PMSEA), Apex Mining announced that it would go back to the chamber and would also rejoin PMSEA.
“The reason why we left is something of the past. We forget the past, we move forward, we look at the future and we work together,” Apex Mining chairman emeritus Walter Brown said.
“We will work for change and we will make good progress together,” he added.
Brown said he has talked and settled things with COMP. The chamber is currently led by its chairman Gerard Brimo.
It was in August 2017 when Apex resigned from COMP after it disagreed on its stance on President Duterte’s anti-illegal mining campaign.
The mining firm has long been calling for better self-regulation in the industry.
During that time, Apex did not agree with COMP that the large-scale miners should blame the illegal small-scale ones amid destruction of the environment.
Following the crackdown of the late environment secretary Gina Lopez, Duterte urged mining companies to restore and rehabilitate all areas damaged by mining activities and provide the necessary support to the communities that have suffered from mining’s disastrous effects to the health and environments.
In response to Duterte’s remarks, the COMP put the blame on small-scale miners. However, Apex argued earlier that COMP should step up self regulation.
Apex reported a consolidated net income of P227 million in the nine month period, down 31 percent from the P328 million recorded in 2018, despite higher production output.
Apex said revenue for the January to September period were just slightly lower at P3.6 billion as its Maco mine sold lower volume of gold.
For the nine-month period, milling throughput increased to 536,433 metric tons averaging at 2,077 MT per day as compared to 451,375 MT averaging at 1,777 MT per day last year.