MICC to conduct review of mines every two years

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 31) — The Mining Industry Coordinating Council will conduct biennial reviews of mining operations in the country in compliance with its mandate, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.

In a press release on Monday, the Department of Finance (DOF) said Dominguez projects the interagency MICC will be able to cover all mining sites in the Philippines in “two or three cycles” or within President Rodrigo Duterte’s term.

The MICC started the first round of multi-stakeholder reviews after meeting to discuss it last February. This covers an initial 26 mines ordered closed or suspended by former Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Gina Lopez.

Finance Undersecretary Bayani Agabin said five technical review teams will carry out the review, based on the types of minerals and locations of the mine.

According to the press release, these teams are “Technical Review (TRT) Team 1 for gold, copper and nickel mines in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Cagayan Valley (Region II) and Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan (Region IV-B); TRT 2 for iron and nickel mines in Central Luzon (Region III); TRT 3 for chromite, nickel and iron mines in Eastern Visayas (Region VIII) and CARAGA; TRTs 4 and 5 for nickel and chromite mines in CARAGA.”

The MICC expects preliminary results for the first batch of reviews in January next year, and the final report by March.

Dominguez, who co-chairs the Council with Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu noted this is the first review for the MICC despite biennial reviews being one of the council’s main tasks.

“I have to congratulate all of you because this group was set up in 2012. It’s the first time ever that we are going to do this review,” Dominguez said at the MICC’s latest meeting on October 24.

Dominguez also told council members to begin discussing by January 2018 its plan for the next review in 2019.

“Because it took quite a bit of time to plan for the implementation of this (first review), and because we are mandated to do this every two years, I think, in January we should already be planning what we will do for 2019,” he said.

In the same meeting, majority of MICC members had also recommended to lift the open-pit mining ban, under the condition that laws and regulations for such practices are strictly enforced by the DENR.

Last April, former Sec. Lopez imposed a ban on open pit mining for copper, gold, silver, and complex ores as she said the country lacks the technology to keep it safe.

READ: DENR plans to ban open-pit mining