Tuesday, June 22, 2010

News update Surge in investments turning Caraga as RP mining capital

BUTUAN CITY - The Caraga region is emerging as the Philippines' mining capital with mushrooming mining investments, both foreign and domestic, officials said Monday.

Owing to its fresh water that encompasses the borders of the provinces of Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur, Northeastern Mindanao or the Caraga region is where the Philippines' largest deposits of gold, nickel, chromite, manganese, base metals, and silver ore are found.

Mining is considered as the engine of growth in Northeastern Mindanao.

The Philippines is also third in copper deposit in the Asia Pacific region.

The conference of Environmental Justice held in Ulan Bataar, Mongolia on Sept. 22-25 last year already acknowledged the Caraga region as the emerging mining capital in Asia, said Regional Director Brielgo O. Pagaran of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Caraga region.

With the present Philippine Mining Act or Republic Act 7942, the Philippines has become the friendliest country for foreign mining firms as they are given tax holidays, a favorable free and prior informed consent guidelines and auxiliary benefits attached to the mining permits issued.

Todate, the Caraga region hosts at least 62 mining firms engaged in mining exploration covering some 103,643.25 hectares or 55.29 percent of the entire mining permits approved in Mindanao.

Including existing mining operations and applications, more than one million hectares of mining areas are potential for mining investments.

In the pipeline, 80 more Mineral Production and Sharing Agreement or MPSAs are pending for approval, 124 application for exploration permits and five pending applications for Financial and Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAA's). Todate, at least 41 MPSAs are already operating in various areas in Surigao del Sur, Surigao del Norte, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur and on Dinagat Islands.

At least 71 Applications for Production Sharing Agreement (APSA) have already been approved with 247,916.59 hectares while exploration permits (EP) also reached to 17 with 25,147.56 hectares.

The mining operations in the Caraga region has improved the living conditions of the people in the countryside as many villagers, mostly indigenous people (IPs), find work while tax revenues for the local governments also increased, Pagaran said.













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