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Mining as a goldmine of opportunity for a struggling country such as
the Philippines is an accepted fact. But it’s an opportunity
fraught with inherent danger if left in the hands of fundamentally
profit-driven entities.
Issues such as the dislocation of indigenous
peoples in the Philippines whose ancestral lands nurture a great
part of the country’s mineral resources were tackled during the
recent monthly meeting of the Philippine Mining and Exploration
Association (PMEA) sponsored by GHD Philippines. Over 70 members
representing companies and investors gathered to percolate ideas on
the best ways to push for a sustainable mining industry that will
propel the country towards the longed-for economic independence
without scarring the land and disrupting the lives of people.
Addressing the thorny issue of ancestral domain,
Fraser Watt, GHD Philippines country manager, said: “If everything
is properly managed and the environmental concerns are adequately
addressed during the planning stage, and there are sufficient
reviews to make sure that mining companies do what they say
they’re going to do, the Philippines could be a very wealthy
country.”
Watt, an environmental chemist, said further,
“The country is sitting on significant resources of minerals,
including copper and nickel, perhaps also zinc, silver and gold;
literally a gold mine under the ground just waiting for its
opportunity to be leveraged.”
Ranked as one of the top 30 engineering and
architecture companies in the world, Australia-based GHD is an
international professional services company that leverages a global
network of 6,000 people in 80 offices throughout Australia, New
Zealand, Asia, the Middle East, the Americas and Europe. Its company
profile points to clients who “seek to work with professional
advisors who operate in a socially, environmentally and economically
responsible manner.”
In keeping with this background, GHD’s general
manager for mining, Paul Currie, flew to Manila to make a special
presentation to PMEA members.
“Overall, [the mining operation] has to be
beneficial to the community, the country, the world and the planet
in some way. Net gain is what we are trying to achieve,” Currie
said in his presentation.
Emphasizing that a mining operation must address
community concerns, or else the project must be shelved, Currie
batted for participation of the indigenous community, saying “they
should be receiving benefits from the project, not just monetary
benefits.”
But for anyone to start benefiting from the
industry, it must be viable. “There will be need for significant
foreign investments and considerable inputs from overseas technology
to make the industry viable,” Watt interjected.
He said: “The Filipinos have a great deal of
value they can impart onto transnational companies as employees. The
difference here is that these people would have been trained in
transnational corporations to understand the environmental and
technical aspects of mining. And I think that’s something missing
at the moment.”
On environmental safety, Watt said, “There
have been one or two unfortunate incidents and no one is trying to
disguise those, but if you look at the number of mines that operate
absolutely safely and securely all over the world in comparison to
those that have had incidents, the number of incidents is remarkably
small. The aim for all responsible mining companies, the government
and the community is to manage projects to eliminate major
incidents.”
How bullish is he then about the Philippine
mining industry? Watt said: “The tourism potential in the
Philippines is massive. We also see the potential of the mining
industry in a similar light. And just like the tourism industry, the
development phase that we are going through is just at the crest of
where the wave is going to be. But it will take some commitment from
government to provide infrastructure. For example, tourists want to
fly in and get on to a nice coach, drive along a nice road to a nice
beach where there is a nice hotel where they can spend their tourist
dollars. Mining industries also want to have the infrastructure in
place and a degree of stability in place to conduct business easily.
They need to be able to import the machinery and the technology
required and they will need to draw upon local resources and
markets. They also want the processes involved in obtaining mining
licenses and operating mines to be fairly applied, with no
favoritism. And I think the hardest thing for any mining company is
when the regulatory regime under which they operate is either
difficult or changes during the operation of the mine. Stability is
the key and it is what mining operators look for.”
-- Nini P. Yarte
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