DENR conducts inventory of idle mining assets

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), through the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), has started conducting an inventory of the government’s idle mining assets in preparation for their sale or re-operation supposedly to augment funds for pandemic response.

Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu said the MGB will update information on mineral reserves and resources of state-owned mining sites.

“This is in preparation for the bidding and sale of mining assets to gain revenues and help the country recover from the effects of the pandemic,” Cimatu said.

MGB director Wilfredo Moncano said the inventory would determine the viability of state-owned mining facilities for future operations.

“Some of these mining assets stopped operating in the 1980s, which means these hold mining information that is around 40 years old,” Moncano said.

“The data needs to be collated and evaluated to see if the reports of former geologists and mining engineers are compliant with the Philippine Mineral Reporting Code that is in place sometime in 2010 only,” he added.

Moncano cited as example the Basay Mining Corp. in Negros Oriental, which stopped operations in 1983, as well as the Marinduque Mining and Industrial Corp. (MMIC Bagacay Mine) in Samar, which was foreclosed by the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Philippine National Bank in 1984.

Moncano said updating the information would also improve the “packaging” of the mining assets to help boost sales.

He said the data to be evaluated include the volume of mineral resources and reserves, technical basis of estimates and methodology of estimation.

Mineral resources refer to the concentration of materials of economic interest found in the Earth’s crust, while a mineral reserve is the economically mineable portion of a mineral resource.

“The updating of the mining information will most likely advance first on those assets without pending legal cases like the Basay Mining Corp. and MMIC Bagacay Mine,” Moncano said.

Meanwhile, Moncano said that some assets under the Privatization and Management Office (PMO) of the Department of Finance (DOF) have sufficient and updated data, thus they can be up for bidding soon.

“Once investors bid on these mining assets, operations will resume. However, documentary requirement to allow for the development and resumption of commercial operations will have to be submitted by the winning bidder to the MGB,” Moncano said.

The DOF’s PMO and the Philippine Mining Development Corp. are the ones responsible for the sale and disposal of state mining assets through public bidding.

Moncano said the DOF has been working with the MGB in preparations for the sale since the announcement last year to privatize several state-owned mining assets.

Mining assets earlier identified for bidding by the PMO included the Pacific Nickel Philippines Inc. in Surigao del Norte, North Davao Mining Property in Davao del Norte, Maricalum Mining Corp. in Negros Occidental and the Marcopper Mining Corp. in Marinduque.