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By Likha C. Cuevas-Miel, Reporter
The investments in the local mining industry is
seen to surge within the next two years as several priority projects
would advance into production, the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources announced on Thursday.
The Philippines may hit $1.8 billion in
projected investments as seven of the 63 priority projects would
proceed into production by 2009, Horacio C. Ramos, DENR director for
mines and geo-sciences bureau, said during the initial public
offering seminar for mining.
The mining projects include Carmen-Toledo
copper, Dipidio copper-gold, Palawan HPAL nickel (line 2) and
Filminera Masbate gold. Also on the list are Iligan Ferronickel
smelter plant, Manticao Ferronickel smelter plant and Philippine
Saga gold.
The total investments poured into these projects
are estimated to reach $670 million, or P26.8 billion, on top of the
$892 million projected for this year. Ramos said additional funds
coming into the industry could easily reach $10.4 billion after four
years as the demand for previous and base metals would continue to
grow.
About 10 of those priority projects would be in
the production stage by 2011 while 8 would be in the construction
and development phase, another 8 in the feasibility and financing
stage and 9 would advance to exploration stage, DENR data showed.
Last year, the local mining industry posted a
gross production value of P95 billion, 22 percent higher year on
year due to the increase in metal prices that is mainly fueled by
the need to feed the growing industries of Korea, India and China.
The environment department projects that the
country would be able to reach “mining country” status in the
next few years when mining exports have already reached 6.15 percent
of total exports, as defined by the World Bank. Three years ago,
mining contributed about 2 percent of total exports and then grew to
4.5 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively, in 2006 and 2007.
Patrick Loftus-Hill, UBS AG chief for natural
resources in Asia, said the global commodities sector—especially
copper, aluminum and zinc—would remain “incredibly” profitable
until 2016 with demand from China alone seen to grow by 8 percent to
10 percent.
He said the traditional sources of these
commodities would soon be running out of supply and the Philippines
should now seize this opportunity by obtaining or increasing
investments for bankrolling projects since the country is sitting on
vast reserves of copper.
There is now a renewed interest in the mining
sector in tapping the local equities market for raising capital,
Benjamin Philip G. Romualdez, Chamber of Mines of the Philippines
president, said. To help mining firms gain access to the equities
market, the chamber, the local bourse, and several stakeholders in
the industry, are now threshing out concrete guidelines to pave way
for a transparent investment environment.
Among these is the need to sort out which firms
are exploratory in nature that are considered as highly speculative
investments and those that are already in the production, which are
seen as “more stable”. Also in the works is the implementation
of the Philippine Mineral Reportorial Code slated within the first
quarter this year.
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