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Despite the prevailing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Department of Natural Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said it surpassed its target in terms of issuing closure orders and mining permits and contracts to erring establishments this year.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) has approved 26 out of 36 applications for new non-metallic mining operations three months after the issuance of Executive Order (EO) 130, which lifted the nationwide ban on new mining projects.

The final draft implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Executive Order (EO) 130 is now awaiting the signature of Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, according to Mines and Geosciences Bureau’s (MGB) top official. This is more than two months since President Rodrigo Duterte signed EO 130, which amended the Aquino Administration’s EO 79 and lifted the country’s nine-year ban on new mining projects.In a text exchange, MGB Director Wilfredo Moncano said the IRR is still in the office of Cimatu for final signature.  

Although the majority of the mineral commodities registered a decline in output, the value of the Philippines’ total mineral production during the first three months of 2021 managed to rise by 14.11 percent to P28.91 billion from P25.34 billion during the same period last year. 

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) is working to secure a budget for the hiring of  more people as it anticipates an influx of several new mining applications following the signing of Executive Order 130, which lifted the ban on new mineral projects.          

The Philippine government has allowed the mining companies that were suspended and ordered closed by former Environment Secretary and late Regina Paz Lopez in 2017 to continue operating.

The country’s metallic mineral production slightly increased by value last year as prices remained higher than their pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, data from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) showed.

Mining operations within the Marikina River Basin should not be blamed for the massive flooding that engulfed some parts of Marikina and Rizal province during the onslaught of Typhoon Ulysses, the deadliest and most destructive typhoon to hit the country in 2020.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) has allowed mining companies to re-align their social development funds the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines.

Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP), which is composed of some of the country’s biggest mining companies, welcomed the proposal of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to further regulate small-scale mining (SSM) activities in the Philippines.  

Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) has secured the green light from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to extract minerals in ancestral domain areas covered by the Tampakan gold and copper mine project.

            The Department of Finance (DOF) is pursuing steps to untangle the legal issues tying down idle mining assets held by the government in an effort to speed up their privatization and revive their operations. 

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) announced the retirement of its Regional Director in Central Visayas, Loreto Alburo, the same official who issued an ore transport permit back in August for the shipment of dolomite rocks from Alcoy town in southern Cebu for the government’s Manila Bay beach nourishment project.