UPDATE 2-Philippines lifts nine-year ban on new mines to boost revenues

* Philippines is one of world's top nickel, copper, gold
producers
* Government seeks to boost state revenues with new mines
* State to renegotiate contracts for better terms
* Moratorium in place ahead of legislation to boost state
returns

(Adds comments from industry, regulator and anti-mining group)
By Enrico Dela Cruz
MANILA, April 15 (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo
Duterte has lifted a moratorium on new mineral agreements
imposed in 2012, reopening the door to investments in a move
that will boost state coffers but has dismayed environmental
activists.
The Philippines, the top supplier of nickel ore to China and
a major producer of copper and gold, imposed the moratorium
while the government worked on legislation to boost the state's
share of mining revenues. Since 2018, the excise tax on minerals
has doubled to 4%.
Duterte's new executive order allows new mining deals and
reviews of existing contracts for possible renegotiation. It
also directs the environment ministry to formulate terms and
conditions and to strictly implement rules on mine safety and
environmental policies.
Mining is a highly contentious issue in the Philippines
after past cases of environmental mismanagement fuelled a strong
lobby against the industry led by local governments,
legislators, advocacy groups and the Catholic church.
Shortly after coming to office in 2016, Duterte warned
miners to follow tighter environmental rules or be shut down and
the new executive order does not undo a ban on new open pit
mines.
More than a third of the Philippines' total land area of 30
million hectares has been identified as having "high mineral
potential", according to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB)
and less than 5% of the Philippines' mineral reserves is
estimated to have been extracted so far.
Several pending mining projects will now proceed to the
development and commercial extraction stages, MGB Director
Wilfredo Moncano said.
"This will not, however, mean that the protection of the
environment and safety will be taken lightly," he said.
Scrambling for funds for infrastructure projects and to help
support the pandemic-hit economy, the government has pushed for
the revival and sale of idle state mining projects. "(The executive order) will help bring the Philippines back
on the investment map," the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines
said in a statement.
"There will be a need for a lot of raw materials like
nickel, copper, gold, manganese, chromite, etcetera when the
world returns to normal," said Dante Bravo, president of the
country's second-biggest nickel ore miner and exporter Global
Ferronickel Holdings Inc FNI.PS .
The Southeast Asian nation became the biggest supplier of
nickel ore to top metals consumer China in 2020 after Indonesia
banned exports of unprocessed ore.
Anti-mining activists said they were alarmed.
"In the middle of a climate crisis and this pandemic,
corporate interests and profit have won again over the welfare
and benefits of the many," Alyansa Tigil Mina (Stop Mining
Alliance) said in a statement.