The Duterte administration is eyeing to sell mining assets to generate much-needed revenue that could boost the country’s recovery from the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu revealed on Thursday.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), through the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), is now preparing an inventory of essential mining information on government’s idle mining assets.
Among the government’s idle mining assets being eyed for sale are the Basay Mining Corp. in Negros Oriental, which stopped operations in 1983, and the Marinduque Mining and Industrial Corp. (MMIC Bagacay Mine) in Samar, which was foreclosed by the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Philippine National Bank in 1984.
“This is in preparation for the bidding and sale of mining assets to gain revenues and help the country recover from the economic devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Cimatu said in a news statement.
MGB Director Wilfredo Moncano, in a telephone interview, said the sale of some the government’s idle mining assets had already been cleared by concerned government agencies.
However, he told the BusinessMirror that he has no idea how much can the government may gain from the sale, saying based on the agreement reached, the Privatization and Management Office (PMO) of the Department of Finance (DOF), will be in charge of the preparation of bid packages, while the MGB will be in charge of the technical aspect, which essentially involves evaluation.
“These are former mining projects and these mining projects borrowed money from banking institutions guaranteed by the government… the Philippine National Bank,” he said.
Some of the government’s idle mining assets with pending cases or questions, he said, will not be put on the sale block, Moncano said. “Only the government mining assets that are already owned by the government for a long time will be up for sale,” he said, adding that the DOF and the PMO would soon come up with the bidding process details.
In the same news statement, Moncano said that the bureau would be updating the mineral resources and mineral reserves data of identified state-owned mining assets to determine the viability of future mining operations.
“Some of these mining assets stopped operating in the 1980s, which means these hold mining information that is around 40 years old,” Moncano pointed out.
“Data are necessary to be collated and evaluated to see if the reports of former geologists and mining engineers are compliant with the Philippine Mineral Reporting Code that is in place sometime in 2010 only,” he added.
To be evaluated is the volume of mineral resources and reserves, the technical basis of estimates, and methodology of estimation, Moncano explained.
A mineral resource refers to the concentration of materials of economic interest found in the Earth’s crust, while a mineral reserve is the economically mineable portion of a mineral resource.
According to Moncano, the updating of the baseline information will also improve the “packaging” of the mining assets to help boost sales.
“The MGB will allot some funds from its budget for the updating of data. The updating of the mining information will most likely advance first on those assets without pending legal cases like the Basay Mining Corp. and MMIC Bagacay Mine,” he said.
However, Moncano said that some assets under the PMO have already sufficient and updated data, which may hasten the bidding process.
“Once investors will bid on these mining assets, operations will resume. However, documentary requirements to allow for the development and commercial operations to resume will have to be submitted by the winning bidder to MGB,” he said.
The PMO of the DOF and the Philippine Mining Development Corporation are the agencies responsible for the sale and disposal of such state mining assets through public bidding.
The DOF has been working with the MGB in the preparations for the sale since its announcement last year to privatize state-owned mining assets.
PMO-listed mining assets for disposal also include Pacific Nickel Philippines Inc. in Surigao del Norte, North Davao Mining Property in Davao del Norte, Maricalum Mining Corp. in Negros Occidental, and Marcopper Mining Corp. in Marinduque.
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