Clearing mining misconceptions

By Lysander N. Castillo

After the rejection of Gina Lopez as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources secretary, the mining industry seems to remain a controversial sector, if President Rodrigo Duterte’s second State of the Nation Address (SONA) is any indication. In that SONA, the environment agenda of the administration appears to be focused on mining, as President Duterte minced no words in hurling criticisms against certain mining operations perceived to be destroying the environment along with the livelihood of farmers living in the nearby communities.

What is striking in that portion of the speech, however, is the clear reference to a television show hosted by a popular broadcaster and aired by a local network owned by the family of the former DENR secretary. Indeed, our notion of what mining is, and how the activity is done in the Philippines, is largely influenced by what comes out in the media. Sadly, the media space, whether traditional or social, is dominated by anti-mining sentiments that often blur the truth behind scientific data or pieces of information. Of course, any campaign must appeal to its audience in order to be effective. It is therefore imperative that the receiving public must be circumspect of messages conveyed especially as regards mining.

In analyzing information, it is always prudent to check on the credentials and credibility of the person painting the picture so as to arrive at a sound judgment. In the case of mining, an impeccable source will be Dr. Carlos A. Arcilla, a renowned geologist from the University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Sciences (UP NIGS) with an extensive industry experience.

In order to provide sobriety in the rabid mining debates, Dr. Arcilla wrote a policy paper entitled: “Mining in the Philippines: Problems and Suggested Solutions,” published by the Stratbase-ADR Institute. In his paper, Dr. Arcilla outlined what he considers as misconceptions to mining.

UP TO 40% OF THE PHILIPPINES WILL BE MINED
Dr. Arcilla, in establishing the misconception, observes that: “One graphic shown consistently by anti-mining groups shows that 40% of Philippine land area will be mined … This gives avenues for comparison with places such as Nauru, where 75% of the area was mined for phosphate, leaving it a barren wasteland.” For the author, however, the proposition cannot be any farther from that truth based on the reasoning that: “What is not explained is that the exploration permits are subject to many no-go rules where mining cannot occur. For example, areas that are populated, that are agricultural, that are protected, or meet other standards, are automatically excluded from mining. The reality is this: the areas that have active mining tenements only comprise less than 3% of the total area of the country, and of these MPSA-covered areas, less than half a percent (0.3%) are being actively mined.”

THE PHILIPPINES IS ONE OF THE MOST MINERALIZED COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD
For Dr. Arcilla, this assumption “can give rise to the mistaken thinking that since we have mineral wealth, investors will be lining up to mine it.” It is pointed out by the author, however, that the huge amount of investments needed to utilize these minerals are not taken into account and that miners will not be willing to invest unless there are “stable and predictable rules governing the mining business.” This is considering that despite being located on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” “the quality of our ore deposits is not better than other deposits elsewhere in the world,” according to Dr. Arcilla.

MINING CONTRIBUTES < 1% TO GDP AND EMPLOYMENT AND SO IT CAN BE STOPPED WITHOUT HARM TO THE COUNTRY
Dr. Arcilla concedes that, “mining contributes only < 1% to the GDP and employment, and it would seem logical to just cancel this segment of the industry because of the pollution it is causing.” This statistic must, however, be put it the proper perspective as Dr. Arcilla takes note of the fact that “the industry has not been allowed to grow, as there has been a moratorium on new mining permits for the last five years …” In the author’s opinion, one important aspect to consider is that “the 1% contribution arises because the GDP contributions from areas without mining are included in the averaging, thus diluting the contribution of mining. However, when we consider the economies of regions where mining is actually occurring (e.g., Caraga Administrative Region [CARAGA] and MIMAROPA Region [MIMAROPA], mining contributes at least 20% of the regional or local government unit’s GDP.”

SMALL-SCALE MINING IS SMALL
Dr. Arcilla simply rejects this notion, to wit:

“Small-scale mining is the biggest problem of mineral extraction in the Philippines. Small-scale mining refers to operations that, in theory, should not exceed 50,000 tons per year and should not use heavy equipment. Many small-scale mining operations do not have permits, although some can be obtained from local governments, which have varying degrees of discipline in the disposition of these permits. In actual scale, small-scale mining for gold comprises over 70% of the total gold production, greatly exceeding the combined output of all the large gold mines.”

From above, it is obvious that spectators to the whole mining saga must look beyond what is presented in the media to form an informed opinion. Doing this is a sure step to finding out the real problems facing our environment.

Atty. Lysander N. Castillo is the Secretary-General of Philippine Business for Environmental Stewardship (PBEST) and Environment Fellow at Stratbase ADR Institute.