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The mining industry is important to a country’s economic
development being a source of raw materials necessary for
industrialization. With its abundant mineral resources, the
Philippines has a vast potential to industrialize. This has yet to
be realized due to the current economic thrusts of the government
and the conditions in which the mining industry is being situated in
our economy.
The Philippines is rich with mineral resources.
We are among the world’s top producers of copper, nickel, chrome,
zinc, gold and silver. We have about 7.1 billion metric tons (BMT)
of metallic deposits and 51 BMT of non-metallic deposits. As the
government claims, the country’s mineral wealth, valued to be from
$840 billion to $1 trillion, is about 10 times our gross domestic
product and 14 to 17 times our external debt. If judiciously used,
these rich mineral resources can be geared to supply the basic needs
of our nation to address the economy’s backward, agrarian and
pre-industrial state.
Copper is a good conductor of electricity and is
used in electrical generators and motors, wiring and in electronic
goods. It also conducts heat well, so it is used in motor vehicle
radiators, air-conditioners and home heating systems. It does not
corrode easily and is malleable. Nickel is used to make stainless
and heat-resisting steels for consumer and industrial applications.
Think of your kitchen sink, cutlery, pots and pans and appliances.
There is a good chance that they are made of nickel-bearing
stainless steel. Its corrosion resistance and high strength over a
wide range of temperatures make nickel a natural choice for a
growing list of applications as well as its use in rechargeable
batteries.
Chromium is used to harden and manufacture
stainless steel and other useful alloys. It is used in
electroplating to produce a hard, beautiful surface to prevent
corrosion. Gold, as well as silver, has traditionally been used in
jewelry but it is used as coatings and electrical contacts in
industry.
Mining activity in the Philippines can be
classified into large- and small-scale mining. Although both have
significant contributions to our nation’s economy, large-scale
mining companies, particularly those with foreign equities, dominate
the mining ina attributed to the capital-intensive and high-risk
nature of large-scale mining, which, at this point, only the
above-mentioned companies outside the national government have the
capacity to venture into.
Our current mineral production is
export-oriented and not geared towards the needs of local industry.
We extract minerals and export them with little or no processing
mainly to answer the international demand, and not for our local
needs and consumption. Yet as we export our cheap mineral ores and
concentrates, we import high-value mineral products, which lead to
trade deficits. Although mineral exports have brought in dollar
earnings, the industry remains overly dependent on the international
market, where the prices of minerals are always fluctuating.
Mining in the Philippines remains essentially in
the extractive stage. Capacity in smelting, refining and fabrication
is very limited, characteristic of an industry that is not fully
integrated and with no linkages with the manufacturing sector. Even
decades after the influx of foreign mining capital, our mining
industry was still mostly limited to exploration and extraction. The
current industry still mainly employs relatively outdated
technologies.
The export-oriented production of the industry
leads to the extraction of voluminous minerals from our lands just
to earn large profits for mining companies and their local partners.
The negative impacts of this rapid extraction on the people and on
the environment are often the least considered, if not sweepingly
neglected.
Mining has been part of the historical
development of societies. In the experience of industrialized
nations, a prosperous mining industry is needed to supply the
mineral demands of local industries and provide the basic needs of
the people. Essential to achieve this is the nationalization of the
mineral industry. Mining as a basic industry should be controlled by
the state for the Filipino people unlike now where it is dominated
and controlled by foreign corporations.
An integrated mining industry with
well-developed extraction and downstream industries will enable us
to independently produce the machinery, tools and consumers goods we
need, to generate jobs for the people, as well as products for
domestic use and international trading. In such a setting, our
mineral production will be primarily driven not by the international
market but by our nation’s actual needs and demands.
Mr. Ric Saturay is the deputy Secretary-General
of AGHAM and is an instructor at the National Institute of
Geological Sciences in UP Diliman. He topped the board exams for
Geology in 2004.
opinion@manilatimes.net
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