End of days for mining speculators

LEGAZPI CITY—Environment officials in Bicol said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) would start weeding out the mining industry in the region of speculators who just use their mining applications as tools to manipulate stock prices.

Rey Juan, DENR Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) regional director, said on Wednesday that the move was in response to the order of Environment Secretary Ramon Paje to put a stop to the operations of unscrupulous mining speculators to protect legitimate mining industry players in Bicol.

Juan said the MGB has advised mining industry players to strictly heed the “use it or lose it” policy.

He said this means the end of tolerance for so-called investors who simply hold on to their exploration contracts but do not start any projects. These investors, he said, simply use their mining permits or mining applications to boost prices of their shares in the stock market.

These, he said, would be purged from the list of mining players recognized by the DENR and MGB.

He, however, did not identify any group of investors, or companies, that face purging from the list.

Aquino’s wish

Juan said Paje issued the directive after President Benigno Aquino gave an order to cleanse the mining industry of noncompliant projects.

“We will never compromise environmental protection, and we are mining to progress not to ruin our communities or our environment,” said Juan.

Juan said that for the past five years, the MGB in Bicol has cleansed the region of 500 mining applicants considered as nonperforming.

In June this year, he said 174 mining applicants have been purged from the list with 38 still pending, Juan said.

He said MGB in Bicol has achieved an 85 percent rate in enforcing the government’s “use it or lose it” policy.

Juan said most of the purged applicants held mining contracts to explore minerals in the provinces of Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur and Masbate, the traditional mining areas in Bicol, Juan said.

Mining tenements include mineral production sharing agreement (MPSA), exploration permit (EP) and financial and technical assistance agreement (FTAA).

In a statement sent by e-mail, Paje confirmed that 1,148 mining applications had been canceled by DENR since the implementation of the “use it or lose it” policy.

Help ‘real miners’

He also criticized scheming speculators that staked claims over mining tenements which they hardly manage properly or invest in but instead use as tools to manipulate prices of their company shares in the Philippine Stock Exchange.

“The government’s focus is to help real miners and get rid of speculators in this industry,” he said.

He said, however, that while government would help real miners, a company that would venture into mining should comply with environmental laws and be “clean and pollution-free since the President requires us to cleanse this industry.”

The mining industry is facing a long queue of hurdles in its fight to tap the country’s mineral resources that had been estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars.