Gina Lopez unwittingly sets foreign firm’s shares on fire

News that a staunch anti-mining advocate is taking over the domestic industry’s regulator may have spooked local stocks, but this may have also boosted mining shares overseas.

Axiom Mining Ltd. Monday had to explain to its own regulator, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), why prices of its shares surged 31 percent over the past several days.

“There has also been political and media speculation that with the new government in the Philippines, it may introduce a ban on the shipping of nickel ore, further limiting the supply available to China, the world’s largest consumer of nickel ore,” the company said, thus making its shares attractive to traders.

The ASX asked Axiom why prices jumped from a low of 13 cents at the close of trading on June 23 to an intra-day high of 17 cents on June 27. The ASX also noticed an increase in the volume traded.

The Queensland-based firm, which mainly operates prospective nickel mines in the Solomon Islands, said it was not aware of any undisclosed information that may have caused all these to happen.

Axiom promised to provide updates on its projects, which are still undergoing exploration.

Mining shares took a beating at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) for two consecutive days last week—first, when it was announced that President-elect Rodrigo Duterte offered to Regina “Gina” Lopez the opportunity to be secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and second, when she announced the following day she has accepted the offer.

In a telephone interview last week, Lopez said an economy “propped up by mining and its ill-effects is not the way to go.”

“You can’t build an economy based on suffering and injustice. It isn’t right,” she said.

Lopez, who is currently in Japan, said she has been around the country and has seen that the poorest places were mining areas.

“The communities suffer and the foreigners and already rich people rake it in. This must  stop if our country is to realize the future it [deserves],” she said.

In particular, Lopez expressed disdain of open-pit mining, which she said foreign miners even refuse to do in their own country.

When asked whether she would approve of mining if done responsibly, Lopez said: “How can it be responsible to do open-pit mining in a country that is most vulnerable to climate change?”