DOF looks to sell mining rights, govt assets

The Philippines is looking to sell more of its assets this year, including a few mining rights owned by the government, the Department of Finance (DOF) said.

“Last year we already sold I think something like PHP1.5 billion assets, and then for this year, we’re aiming to sell more,” Finance Undersecretary for privatization and corporate affairs Catherine Fong said.

Fong added that they’re looking to sell some mining rights owned by the government this year or next year. However, the government has yet to verify the content of one of the mining contracts before auctioning.

“A lot of the feasibility studies are still desktop. So we’re having the valuation done, but definitely there are a lot who are interested. We’re being assisted right now by the German government, and we’ve also received offers from the US government and Australian government to assist us in assessing the value of the mines and to help us in packaging it for auction, so definitely there’s a lot of local and foreign interest once we’re ready to auction the mines,” Fong said.

The government currently has four mining rights.

“We have four, as I understand, they’re quite big, but some are still under litigation, so we’re not prepared to auction it out yet, but at least one already has a clean title, so we’re going with that [Basay Mine] first, but we’re still in the process of validating its actual value,” Fong added.

While the government is not only looking at an outright auction of the Basay Mine, but it is also asking development partners to help in a possible joint venture.

“We’re trying to get assistance on the modern good practices in the mining industry on how to sell it, we’re trying to package it in a more responsible way,” Fong noted.