The Philippines is no longer in the list of mining jurisdictions ranked by Fraser Institute despite the country’s big untapped mineral resource deposit estimated at over $1 trillion.
Citing the latest survey by the Fraser Institute, Chamber of Mines of the Philippines chairman Gerry Brimo said “the Philippines does not rank, anymore.”
“In other words, we’re not even on the radar screen of global mining investors at this time. And I’m referring particularly to metals such as copper, gold and nickel that are critical for the EV [electric vehicle] market, which is indeed very large,” Brimo said Tuesday during the second segment of the 2021 Arangkada Forum.
He said excise taxes on metallic minerals doubled under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion package of tax reforms which was ill-timed as active mines were earning barely enough to recover expenses while many miners abandoned their operations since the moratorium on mining was imposed in 2012.
“But there is yet another policy problem that remains in place, and therefore continues to put a brake on the growth of the industry. And that is the ban on open pit mining that was instituted by the DENR. It is not hard to imagine that the impact on global mining resource investors has been severe,” he said.