THE DEPARTMENT of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), through the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), has been working on policy reforms on small-scale mining for some time now, MGB director Leo L. Jasareno said.
“We have to upgrade the standards set for small-scale mining,” Jasareno said amid reports that Chinese firms were using dummies and going into small-scale mining to avoid the same level of regulation imposed on large-scale miners.
He said the DENR and MGB were seeking changes to stop the indiscriminate manner many small-scale miners have operated.
New conditions must also be imposed to plug losses in potential revenue from unregulated operations, Jasareno said.
“The present application process for small-scale mining is very lax and any individual can just go to the provincial governor and once a permit is obtained, the small-scale miner is largely on his own,” Jasareno said.
He said an environmental impact assessment and an initial environmental examination (description of the proposed mining operation) were too simplistic and should be replaced by more stringent requirements.
Implement single law
One major reform that would pave the way for such stringent requirements is the implementation of a single small-scale mining law instead of the current two: Republic Act No. 7076 and Presidential Decree No. 8099.
“We believe RA 7076 supercedes PD 8099 but until now the two laws are both implemented. We believe RA 7076 should be in place because it was enacted more recently, thus repealing PD 8099, and because it imposes more stringent conditions for small-scale mining operations,” Jasareno said.
Once RA 7076 is in place as the single law governing small-scale mining, reforms can gain momentum, Jasareno said.
One change which the DENR-MGB wants is to subject miners to full-blown environmental impact assessment, something which large-scale miners are already complying with.
Having an environmental impact assessment and getting the resulting environmental impact assessment, would give regulators a more in-depth view of how a small-scale mining operation could damage the environment, Jasareno said.
Also in line with RA 7076, the ECC application of small-scale miners would go all the way to the environment secretary’s office. At present, the applicant only needs to get the ECC from the MGB regional office governing the prospective mine site.
Waiting for DoJ response
Jasareno said the MGB sent a letter to the Department of Justice in April asking for a legal opinion. The letter included the MGB’s position that RA 7076 should be implemented and PD 8099 had been repealed. The bureau is awaiting the DoJ’s response.
RA 7076 provides for contracts with a cooperative of small-scale miners thus promoting equity. It also requires the government to identify and set a so-called People’s Small Scale Mining Area (Minahang Bayan) to be subdivided into 20-hectare lots for cooperative members.
The small-scale mining cooperative would also have a production-sharing agreement with government, which will put a custom mill or central processing plant in the Small Scale Mining Area.
“All of those requirements are not in PD 8099. Small-scale mining has become indiscriminate because of that,” Jasareno said.
Once RA 7076 is implemented as the single law covering small-scale mining, the government can better regulate operations, Jasareno said.