Gov’t to auction idle mining assets

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau says it will bid out 1,400 idle mining areas throughout the Philippines

Mining assets with canceled applications and permits will go on auction after President Aquino signs mining reforms, according to Mines and Geosciences Bureau director Leo L. Jasareno.

Within three months of the approval of the mining policy, he said the government could start the bidding process for the vacant mine assets.

There are about 1,600 mining areas with cancelled applications and permits. Of the total, 400 are under appeal. That would leave 1,400 mining areas that are ready for bidding, Jasareno said.

Without the mining reforms to be implemented under a still unsigned executive order, the existing moratorium on new mining applications would stay as well.

“That [moratorium] will be lifted when the EO is signed,” he said.

The auctioned assets would be developed under a new scheme, Jasareno said. At present, medium-sized mining projects fall under Mineral Production Sharing Agreements, or MPSAs, and large-scale projects fall under the Financial or Technical Assistance Agreements, or FTAAs.

The mining assets to be bid out after the signing of the EO on mining reforms would be developed under a joint venture agreement between the government and the winning company.

“The sharing [arrangement] will be different. The government can negotiate a higher share of the mining revenue,” Jasareno said. He stressed that the government was not simply referring to taxes when it was talking about getting a share of mining revenues.

“Everyone pays taxes but the mining industry is different in the sense that the government must get a share of revenue aside from the taxes paid by the mining company. Some see royalties as a way of getting the government’s share, some see the removal of incentives as one way and so on. All of these will undergo consultation in Malacañang,” Jasareno said.

He stressed that this meant consultations would not be with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-MGB, as announced by Environment Secretary Ramon Paje.

Miners, on the other hand, have said that the government was already getting more than 50 percent of mining revenues through taxes.

If the Philippines implements the Mining Act of 1995 well and plugs tax leaks in the small-scale mining sector, there would be no need for additional levies since the country has the same or higher level of taxes compared to other countries, according to the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines.

Environmental risk mitigation and rehabilitation would also be addressed during consultations in Malacañang before a final draft is presented for signing to President Aquino, Jasareno said.

Miners said the industry was accorded only two hours of consultation with the mining study group while 18 hours were accorded to anti-mining organizations, Chamber of Mines president Benjamin Philip G. Romualdez said in an earlier briefing.