MANILA, April 19 (Reuters) - The Philippines can boost tax
receipts from mining by more than $400 million annually if
stalled projects take off in five years, the government said on
Monday, following its landmark move to lift a moratorium on new
contracts.
President Rodrigo Duterte, who once said the country could
survive without mining, signed an executive order last week
lifting a nine-year ban on new mining deals to boost state
coffers. More than 30 priority projects can now proceed to
development stage, including big-ticket ones like the $1.1
billion Silangan copper-gold mine of Philex Mining Corp PX.PS ,
said Wilfredo Moncano, the director of the Mines and Geosciences
Bureau (MGB).
Several Chinese mining companies had expressed interest in
investing in Silangan in southern Surigao del Norte province,
according to Philex. The government can generate additional tax revenue annually
of 21 billion pesos ($434 million) from priority projects alone,
Moncano said.
"This will be generated after the development and
construction period that may take one to five years, depending
on the size of the projects," he told Reuters.
The still largely-unexplored Philippines is the biggest
nickel ore supplier to top metals consumer China and also has
substantial copper and gold reserves, but mining contributes
less than 1% to the overall economy.
The project pipeline also includes the $5.9 billion Tampakan
gold-copper mine development also in the south, the Philippines'
biggest stalled project.
Tampakan failed to take off after the provincial government
banned open-pit mining in 2010, prompting commodities giant
Glencore to quit the project in 2015.
The environment ministry has under a previous leadership
imposed a nationwide ban on open-pit mining, which Duterte has
upheld, adding to policy issues hampering Tampakan.
The MGB has asked Duterte to lift the nationwide ban, but
Moncano said a presidential action may not be necessary since
the measure was imposed via an administrative order that can be
repealed by a subsequent administrative order.