Four operating members of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) performed at par with global best mining practices in five protocols or key areas that minerals development firms should focus on towards sustainable mining (TSM) standard.
The results, confirmed by independent external verifiers, were revealed during the recent Digging Deeper Mining Policy Forum at The Westin Hotel in Mandaluyong City.
Filminera Resources Corp.’s Masbate Gold Project received the highest verified ratings of AAA in TSM’s biodiversity conservation management across all protocol 3 indicators, while Philex Mining Co.’s Padcal Project was rated AAA in all six indicators under tailings management.
TVI Resource Development Phils. Inc. was rated AAA in three of the four indicators under water stewardship. Taganito Mining Co., meanwhile, had the highest scores in four of the five Indicators under safety and health as well as in all five indicators under the IP and community outreach and social development management.
“We are extremely encouraged by the active participation of our members in the first year of TSM’s full implementation in our country,” COMP chairman Michael Toledo said.
“TSM provides us a roadmap with which to measure our performance on important areas that our stakeholders, especially our host communities, care about. We now know how to achieve global mining best practices, and our members will constantly strive to reach the highest ratings towards better ESG performance, and consequently, improved relationships and bottom line,” said Toledo.
The four companies were among the eight COMP operating members that were randomly selected this year to undergo external verification of their self-ratings for their 2023 TSM performance.
The other four companies that were subjected to verification are Platinum Group Metals Corp. Surigao Project, Carmen Copper Corp., FCF Minerals Runruno Project and Cagdianao Mining Co. The external verification reports for the eight mines can be found in the COMP website.
All of COMP’s 19 members with active mine sites submitted their TSM self-assessment results earlier this year. The 11 other self-rated mines will be verified in 2025 for their 2024 performance.
Most verified mines performed well in IP community outreach and social development management as well as safety and health. Most of them, however, need to perform better in the water stewardship and climate change protocols.
Asked to comment on the mines’ weak Climate Change performance (C and B ratings), Department of Environment and Natural Resources Undersecretary Analiza Teh said that “with the completion of the National Adaptation Plan 2023-2050 and the Nationally Determined Contribution Implementation Plan 2023-2030, the government is advancing a climate action strategy to strengthen the country’s resilience to climate impacts and optimize opportunities to transition to a low-carbon development pathway. This approach will be driven by strategic collaboration and synergy across disciplines, scales, and sectors.”
“COMP has established the goal of having all of its member facilities achieve a Level A or better in all indicators under all 8 Protocols COMP has adopted,” Toledo said.
“Level A is broadly defined as good practice and AAA, excellence and leadership. As TSM presupposes that a mine is compliant with the law, a ‘C’ or ‘Fail’ rating means the mine, while legally compliant, does not meet TSM’s foundational practice or starting position of conformance with global industry standards,” he said.
TSM is a set of tools and indicators to drive performance and ensure that key mining risks are managed responsibly, and best practices are used at members’ facilities. Now being implemented in 15 mining jurisdictions worldwide, TSM was established by the Mining Association of Canada in 2004 and adopted by COMP in 2017.
This year marks the first year of COMP’s full implementation of the program. Since 2018, the association of the Philippines’ biggest large-scale metallic mining firms had been preparing for TSM, including the Filipinization of TSM Protocols and Indicators, the formation of a multi-sector advisory panel, the accreditation of external verifiers, and the development of the TSM online submission app.
