At least 18 major mining operations in the country will be audited for three months, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Undersecretary for Mining Concerns Analiza Rebuelta-Teh.
Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) will lead the second round of mining audit.
“It already started this month. There has been some field visits already,” Teh was quoted in a Manila Bulletin report.
The MICC already started the three-month audit with Apex Mining Corp.’s mining operation at Compostela Valley.
This was confirmed by the company’s chief operating officer Louie Sarmiento.
“They just completed the audit last Thursday,” Sarmiento told Manila Bulletin reporters.
Next on the list are Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp., Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp., Philex Mining Corp., Platinum Group Metals Corp., Taganito Mining Corp., Cagdianao Mining Corp., and Pacific Nickel Philippines Inc.’s operations in Surigao del Norte and Dinagat Islands.
Next month, the target audit will be the operations of TechIron Resources, Inc., Filmera Resources Corp., FCF Minerals Corp., and Century Peak Corporation’s Rapid City Nickel and Casiguran Nickel Projects.
The last batch will be in January and will cover the operations of Agata Mining Ventures, SR Metals, Inc., Philsaga Mining Corp., Greenstone Resources Corp., and Tribal Mining Corp.
The duration of all mine audits will be three days. Six months will be allotted for government’s assessment and preparation for the results, which should be done in June.
The DENR and the Department of Finance (DOF) released a P10 million each budget for the audit.
The factors being considered for the audit are the environmental, economic, social, legal and technical aspects of the mining operations.
Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc., president Dante Bravo earlier said “too much audit” on the mining industry is the new normal.
He added that after the regime of former DENR secretary Gina Lopez, mining companies now have to undergo three or more audits per year.
The DENR also conducts two separate audits which are led by the central office and the regional office.
Local government units (LGU) and host barangays also require mining companies to show their annual reports of their operations.
