THESE may be bad times for mining companies, as commodity prices go on their down cycle, but I hear one group is going into a mining venture with a twist.

Its name is CNMC Mining and Development Corp., a business brainchild of a local and a foreign group.

The locals are the three Tieng brothers, with the youngest, the one named Willie, on top of the family foray into the boom-and-bust sector that is mining.

The Tieng group is behind the television companies under the "Solar" brand, such as Solar Sports on cable and CS Solar, which--if I may say so--is doing a pretty good job in broadcasting the pro-basketball PBA games.

Anyway, the "CNMC" in the firm's name comes from the foreign partners--China Non-ferrous Metals Mining Co. Ltd., the biggest mining company in China.

CNMC Mining is a different mining venture because, for its market, the company will target the local mining firms themselves.

And that is a huge market in this country. It is your mining business of the future.

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IN THE PAST few years of a worldwide mining boom, every inch of the Philippines has been covered by claims. All sorts of groups obtained exploration rights over mountains upon mountains of raw land, of course, with a little help from some naughty DENR officials.

Most of them merely sold the exploration rights to some Chinese groups.

It is doubted that anything will happen in those claims, especially since the world's mining industry is in its down cycle.

In China, CNMC Ltd. is known as a minerals exploration company. It discovered mineral deposits not only in Asia but also in areas as far away as Africa.

Reports from abroad also indicate that CNMC is well-grounded in other aspects of mining, particularly appraisal, engineering, financing and marketing.

In all likelihood, the local CNMC will form joint ventures with the local groups whose mining claims are--you guessed it--mostly idle.

Mineral exploration takes truckloads of money. And so the claims over mineral exploration here remained precisely that--just claims.

Hopefully, the local CNMC Mining can offer deals to those claimants.

From what I heard, the Chinese partners are willing to bring into the local venture the technical personnel and modern equipment, and most importantly, the capital. After all, CNMC has access to the biggest mineral market in the world, which is China.

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NOW IT'S THE Supreme Court versus the Department of Justice, courtesy of the National Bureau of Investigation.

It all revolves around Stradec, or Strategic Alliance Development Corp., one of the companies of the famous Cezar Quiambao.

You know him--he brokered deals like the South Luzon Expressway skyway, the LTO licensing and passport processing with the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Quiambao is fighting with his partners in Stradec, who ousted him some years ago. So they threw court cases at each other.

Early last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the Stradec stockholders meeting in March 2004 was valid. That was when Quiambao's partners in Stradec ousted him as chair and president. Elected in his place was Alderito Yujuico.

The Supreme Court also dismissed the ruling of the Urdaneta City Regional Trial Court, which allowed the holding of a Stradec special stockholders meeting to elect its board and officers. It was to be held in Bayambang, Pangasinan.

Last month, all of a sudden, one of the task forces of the NBI submitted findings to the DOJ, covering the complaint of Quiambao against his partners in Stradec.

The DOJ "found sufficient evidence" to indict Yujuico, plus a certain Bonifacio Sumbilla, for syndicated estafa.

What? Well, Quiambao claimed the two caused Stradec to divest from Star Infrastructure Development Corp. and Star Tollway Corp.

The Yujuico camp said it was a legitimate transaction, since they were in control of the firm, based on the ruling of the Supreme Court.

Question: Could Quiambao still file cases in behalf of Stradec? It seems the NBI and the DOJ think so.

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ACCORDING TO PNB president and CEO Omar Byron Mier, also a former executive of the US-based Citibank, our banks are becoming cautious in lending.

I listened to Mier, talking before the Rotary Club of Makati Dasmariñas on the US financial meltdown and its effects on the Philippines.

Mier contended that the US financial crisis could be contained, but its repercussions might linger much longer.

One of them is credit crunch. Mier noted that banks were becoming choosy in lending even to each other.

In banking nowadays, they are saying that the Bangko Sentral must step into the interbank loan market, possibly to ease lending by granting guarantees of some sort.

Anyway, Mier said the United States might go into a long recession, which can last for up to two years. That means hard times for the Philippines as well.

Now, what do we do? Well, some people are said to be buying big vaults to keep their cash at home and out of the banks.

Fear, in other words!