A group of investors on Sunday called on the government to support offshore mining in Philippine seabeds for the industry to flourish, aside from fishing.
At a media briefing in Quezon City, Dr. Michael Raymond Aragon, Offshore Mining Chamber of the Philippines Inc. chairperson, said offshore mining is a new and high technology “to cleanly mine for raw minerals in the deep seabeds of our country.”
However, he lamented that the Philippines does not have the high technology and lacks the money, and that there is a need for foreign resources to do this locally.
Offshore mining is entirely different, and much cleaner and greener mining process against the land-based mining, Aragon noted.
The country’s “untouched” oceans are rich in mineral resources, such as palladium, manganese, iron, nickel, platinum, copper, silver, gold, lithium, and even “elusive” rare earth elements “crucially needed in the electronic and renewable industries, he said.
“We welcome the approval of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on the issuance of an executive order to operationalize the nation’s tariff commitments under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership of the Asian Southeast Nations,” Aragon told reporters.
“Offshore mining may benefit from preferential tariff reduction for imported industrial goods and equipment,” he said.
The new mining scheme needs all-out support from the government, Aragon said, emphasizing that oceans can also utilized for mining, apart from fishing.