March 31, 2021 | 07:00:00 PM

QUICK FACTS | Digging for pro�ts: Who owns PHmines?Ten of the 28 mining companies ordered closed or suspended by the late Department of Environment andNatural Resources Secretary Regina ‘Gina’ Lopez posted net gains based on their latest available �nancialstatements. Sixteen su�ered net losses, while two others have no available information.

BY KAROL ILAGAN

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Platinum Group Metals Corp (PGMC), which extracts nickel ore in Surigao Del Norte in Mindanao, recordedP6.1 billion in revenue from contracts with Chinese customers in 2019 and posted a net income of P1.03billion that year, its latest �nancial statements showed. 

It also recorded nickel production of over 2.5 million dry metric tons in 2020, which was valued at about P5billion, although the �nancial statements for last year were not yet available.

PGMC was the biggest earner among the mining companies ordered closed or suspended by the lateEnvironment Secretary Regina “Gina” Lopez in February 2017. Many of them were able to continueoperations while their permits went under review. 

Ten of out of the total 28 mining companies in Lopez’s order posted net gains, based on their latest available�nancial statements. Sixteen posted net losses, while two others didn’t have information available fromcorporate regulators.. 

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism mapped the mining �rms in Lopez’s order. Click the map tosee pro�les of the mining companies. It shows information from their incorporation documents, �nancialstatements, details about their host communities, and links to latest news stories. (Editor’s Note: The arrowspoint to the municipality where the mining companies operate, not the exact location of the operations.)

 

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Terms

 

The 23 mining companies closed by Lopez are the following: Benguet Corp. | Ore Asia Mining and Development Corp. | BenguetCorp

Nickel Mines Inc. | Eramen Mineral Inc. | Zambales Diversified Metals Corp. | LNL Archipelago Minerals Inc. | Mt. Sinai Mining

Exploration and Development Corp. | Emir Mineral Resources Corp. | Techiron Resources Inc. | AAM-Phil Natural Resources and

Development Corp. | Kromico Inc. (Krominco Inc.) | SinoSteel Philippines HY Mining Corp. | Oriental Synergy Mining Corp. | Wellex

Mining Corp. | Libjo Mining Corp. | Oriental Vision Mining Philippines Corp. | ADNAMA Mining Resources Inc. | Claver Mineral

Development Corp. | Platinum Group Metals Corp. | CTP Construction and Mining Corp. | Carrascal Nickel Corp. | Marcventures

Mining and Development Corp. | Hinatuan Mining Corp.

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Five other companies were ordered suspended: Berong Nickel Corp. | OceanaGold Phils Inc. | Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. Inc. |

Citinickel Mines and Development Corp. | Strong Built Mining Dev. Corp.

The map shows PGMC operating a mining area of 4,376 hectares in Claver, a small coastal town innortheastern Mindanao with a population of less than 40,000. Documents from the Securities and ExchangeCommision (SEC) also showed that among its major stockholders are Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc. andbusinessman Joseph Sy, the board chairperson. 

Twenty-one out of the 28 companies in Lopez’s order are involved in extracting nickel, which is in highdemand globally. Based on available data, 14 �rms mined a total of 11.85 million dry metric tons of nickelworth P15.22 billion in 2020. The country is the biggest supplier of nickel ores to China, a top metalsconsumer. 

The status of the mining companies in the list are also presented in a table below. 

 

 Page 1 of 3 

Mining Firm Province2017Order

MetalExtracted/MineProduct

MetallicMineralOutput(2020 or2019,whicheveris latest)

ProductionValue (2020or 2019,whichever islatest)

NetIncome(latestyearavailable)

BenguetCorp. Benguet Closure

nickel,gold,silver, lime

243kilogramsof gold &107kilogramsof silver

P687,320,237(gold) &P3,600,833(silver)

P115.74million(2019)

Ore Asia Not

What happened to Gina Lopez’s closed and suspended mines? Here’s whatwe know.

Search in table

 f 

in

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Ore AsiaMining andDevelopmentCorp.

Bulacan Closure iron oreincludedin MGB2020report

Not includedin MGB 2020report

-P1.45million(2019)

BenguetCorpNickel MinesInc.

Zambales Closure nickel

6,808 drymetrictons(directshippingore)

P11,730,016-P191.16million(2019)

EramenMineral Inc. Zambales Closure nickel

Nonereportedfor 2020and 2019

Nonereported for2020 and2019

P106.88million(2018)

ZambalesDiversifiedMetals Corp.

Zambales Closure nickel

354,039dry metrictons(directshippingore)

P770,431,279P99.81million(2019)

LNLArchipelagoMinerals Inc.

Zambales Closure nickel

290,853dry metrictons(directshippingore)

P743,318,584-P110.21million(2017)

Mt. SinaiMiningExplorationandDevelopmentCorp.

EasternSamar Closure chromite

Notincludedin MGB2020report

Not includedin MGB 2020report

-P13.96million(2018)

Emir MineralResourcesCorp.

EasternSamar Closure nickel,

chromite

Notincludedin MGB2020report

Not includedin MGB 2020report

-P9.95million(2018)

Techiron 34 108 dry -P33 15

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TechironResourcesInc.

EasternSamar Closure chromite

34,108 drymetrictons

P296,595,330P33.15

million(2018)

AAM-PhilNaturalResourcesand

DinagatIslands Closure nickel

Nonereportedfor 2020

Nonereported for2020 and

-P33.88million(2019)

MICC review

Malacañang ordered the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) to review the audit conducted byLopez. Since her crackdown on the industry four years ago, the MICC review remains pending and the resultsunknown. 

PCIJ’s January 2021 request for information on the status of the review with Executive Secretary SalvadorMedialdea yielded no results as his o�ce refused to disclose information on speci�c cases.

PCIJ’s second attempt to seek updates on the MICC review, on March 23, has yet to be answered byMedialdea’s o�ce.

In an e-mail interview early this year, the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) said it was also waitingfor Malacañang to resolve Lopez’s orders to “move mining forward.” COMP Vice President forCommunications Rocky Dimaculangan said the MICC scheduled a second round of audits in early 2020. Buthe said he was unaware if this was completed.

Dimaculangan, also COMP’s national coordinator for sustainable mining, said two other policies that hadsti�ed minerals development needed resolving. These are the moratorium on new mineral agreements(Executive Order 79, s. 2012) and the ban on open-pit mining (DENR Department Order 2017-10).

Duterte, who has kept the Aquino administration’s open-pit mining ban, has repeatedly singled out minersfor degrading the environment, threatening them with tighter environmental rules. 

The president’s pronouncements ran parallel with Lopez’s 2016 order for an industry-wide audit of large-scale mining, which has had a long history of negative impact on land and water resources, biodiversity,public health, indigenous communities and environmental defenders. 

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PCIJ requested a copy of the full audit from the DENR, but the o�ce referred PCIJ to MGB. The DENR did notrespond to PCIJ’s queries regarding the MICC review. Various reports have cited violations of environmentallaws and environmental compliance certi�cates as reasons for the closure and suspension of the 28 mines. 

As of writing, only two companies from the DENR’s list of 28 erring mines were reported to have permanentlyclosed. Five have suspended mining permits or operations. Another �rm’s mining permit application wasdenied. One was renegotiating the renewal of its permit. Five others were o�cially allowed to resumeoperations, while the remaining 14 appeared to have ongoing operations and have pending appeals with theO�ce of the President. Seventeen of the 28 �rms reported mineral production with the MGB in 2020.

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 Closures, suspensions

On Nov. 12, 2018, the DENR under Secretary Roy Cimatu issued a resolution ordering the closure of OrientalSynergy Mining Corp., Claver Mineral Development Council and Ore Asia Mining and Development Corp.

The order stemmed from motions for reconsideration �led by 13 mining �rms on the order issued by theDENR under Lopez. Motions �led by the three companies were denied. The DENR directed them to pay all�nes and penalties. The agency also barred the transport of ore until full rehabilitation is undertaken bythese mining companies.

In the same resolution, nine of the 13 mining companies that were previously ordered closed weresuspended instead. Four of these �rms would be allowed to resume operations later on. 

These developments would be re�ected in the Mines and Geosciences Bureau’s list of mineral production

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sharing agreement (MPSAs) as of Feb. 28, 2021. According to MGB, three of 23 mining �rms ordered closedwere listed as having suspended MPSAs: Wellex Mining operating in Libjo and Tubajon, Dinagat Islands;Eramen Minerals Inc. in Sta. Cruz and Candelaria, Zambales; and BenguetCorp Nickel Mines, Inc. in Sta. Cruz,Zambales.

MGB also listed Krominco Inc. and Mt. Sinai Mining Exploration and Development Corp. as having MPSAs“under care and maintenance,” but their commercial operations were “suspended.”

Details of DENR closure orders were included in some of the companies’ latest audited �nancial statements.

On Feb. 13, 2017, BenguetCorp Nickel Mines Inc. received an order from the DENR, cancelling its MPSA for itsSta. Cruz Nickel project. The order alleged that the company’s operations had overlapped a watershed in thearea. Prior to this order, the DENR, in a separate report dated Oct. 3, 2016, found that the company hadviolated several conditions of its Environmental Compliance Certi�cate and other legal provisions.

On Feb. 22, 2017, the company �led an appeal before the O�ce of the President to revise the DENRcancellation order. The company claimed that it was operating within the Zambales chromite mineralreservation, which had been excluded from government-declared watersheds.

In its 2019 �nancial statement, the company noted that the O�ce of the President, as of March 20, 2019, hadyet to respond to the appeal.

As for Eramen Minerals Inc., DENR cancelled the company’s permit for supposedly violating provisions of thefollowing laws and regulations:

Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004 and its implementing rules and regulations;Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 and its amending Rule IX;Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and its implementing rules and regulations; andRevised Forestry Code of the Philippines.

In its appeal with the O�ce of the President, Eramen addressed the issues raised by DENR, claiming, amongothers, that the “non-issuance of the tree-cutting permit is the fault of the DENR as they failed to act on thevarious permits applied by the company” and that its mining operation “has not adversely impaired thefunctions of the watershed in the area based on a one-year scienti�c study conducted by UP NIGS (theUniversity of the Philippines’s National Institute of Geological Sciences).” 

The company also argued that the DENR violated the terms and conditions of the MPSA when it did notresort to arbitration before cancelling the agreement. Prior to the 2017 closure order, the DENR in 2014

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directed the company to suspend hauling operations until conditions were met.

In 2016, concerned citizens of Sta. Cruz, Zambales �led a petition for a Writ of Kalikasan, an injunction, to beissued against �ve mining �rms including BenguetCorp. and Eramen. The Supreme Court granted thepetition. But after petitions made before the Court of Appeals, the provisional Writ of Kalikasan issued by thehigh court was lifted.

Wellex Mining Corp. also received an order from the DENR cancelling its MPSA. On Nov. 12, 2018, thedepartment issued a resolution (1) partially granting Wellex’s motion for reconsideration on the 2017cancellation order; (2) suspending the operation of the �rm; and (3) directing it to do the following:

correct all violations and de�ciencies and conduct replacement planting in accordance with DENRMemorandum Order No. 2012-02 prescribing a uniform replacement ratio for cut or relocated trees;andpay all �nes and penalties immediately upon receipt of the resolution.

 

Resuming operations

In July 2020, Environment Undersecretary Benny Antiporda was quoted in a news report as saying that �ve�rms were “granted approval by the O�ce of the President (OP) after complying with mining laws.” 

The �rms that were allowed to resume operations were:

1. Berong Nickel Corp. in Palawan;2. Emir Mineral Resources Corp. in Eastern Samar;3. Zambales Diversi�ed Metals Corp. in Zambales;4. Carrascal Nickel Corp. in Surigao del Sur; and5. Strong Built Mining Development Corp. in Leyte.

Nickel miner Emir, Zambales Diversi�ed and Carrascal were ordered closed by Lopez in 2017. Berong, also anickel miner, and Strong Built, which mines for magnetite sand, were supposed to be suspended.

According to MGB records, OceanaGold’s Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) expired on June20, 2019. It �led a renewal application on Oct. 1, 2018. The MGB forwarded the application to the DENR onApril 30, 2019. The DENR endorsed the application to the O�ce of the President.

On June 19, 2019, the O�ce of the President returned the application because it lacked the consent of the

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National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. 

On June 20, 2019, the MGB issued a letter to the DENR permitting OceanaGold to continue its miningoperations pending the con�rmation of its FTAA.

On the same day of the FTAA expiry, the provincial government of Nueva Vizcaya issued a directive calling onlocal o�cials to “restrain any operations” by OceanaGold in Didipio. This prompted OceanaGold to �le legalcases against the provincial government, including an injunction against the barricade.

Mongabay, a nonpro�t conservation and environmental science news platform, reported that the regionalcourt rejected OceanaGold’s request for an injunction. This prompted the mining giant to take the ruling tothe Court of Appeals.

In July 2020, the Court of Appeals dismissed OceanaGold's appeal to allow it to continue operating after itspermit expired in June 2019.

In February 2021, the Philippine government and OceanaGold were reported to be �nalizing the terms of theFTAA renewal. The renewal was expected to be endorsed to the O�ce of the President for approval.

PCIJ did not �nd details on the rest of the mines but they were included in the MGB list as having “existing”MPSAs. They are also listed as conducting commercial operations in MGB’s “directory of metallic operatingmines as of January 2021.” These mines reported metallic mineral production and �led reports with theSecurities and Exchange Commission in the last two years. – with research assistance from Stanley GajeteBuenafe and Angelica Carballo-Pago

 

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This article was produced with the support of Internews' Earth Journalism Network. — PCIJ, March 2021

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