The Philippines, one of the world’s top suppliers of nickel ore, will this week start limiting the land that miners can develop at any one time as new rules take effect to protect the environment.
The new curbs, backed by President Rodrigo Duterte, target 29 of 48 mines operating in the country, which supply nickel ores to the world’s leading market, China.
Mining is a deeply contentious issue in the resource-rich Southeast Asian country after past examples of environmental mismanagement.
The industry group Chamber of Mines of the Philippines said it supports the government order.
Under the new rules, a 20-meter “buffer zone” will be established inward from the mining tenement boundary and near rivers and streams, where metals extraction will be banned.
Nickel miners will be limited to a production area ranging from 123-400 acres at any one time, depending on the size of production and whether they have a processing plant.
The government order, which takes effect this week, will allow mines producing up to 1 million tons of nickel ore a year to work on 123 acres at any one time.
Those producing more can work on 148 acres up to 247 acres, while projects with a processing plant will be allowed up to 400 acres.
“If mining companies intend to open a new area, say 247 acres, they should also progressively rehabilitate the same 247 acres that they previously disturbed,” Manila’s Geosciences Bureau Director Wilfredo Moncano told Reuters on Thursday.
Duterte told miners in April to reforest areas where they operate, warning he would revoke their permits if he doesn’t see trees as tall as he is in six months.
Miners will be required to put up a 93,370-US-dollar performance bond every year as a guarantee that they will comply with the requirement on mine rehabilitation. The bond will be forfeited if they fail to comply.
“Our member-companies are fast-tracking efforts to comply with the order, including the revegetation of mined-out and inactive mine areas,” Rocky Dimaculangan, the Chamber of Mines’ vice president for communications, told Reuters.
Nickel ore output fell 10 percent in the first half of 2018 from a year earlier to 9.43 million dry metric tons, government data showed.
Eleven of the nickel mines had zero output during the period because their operations were suspended or they were under maintenance status.
(Cover: Farmers work in a ricefield overlooking nickel-ore mines ordered closed by Environment secretary Regina Lopez in the mining town of Sta Cruz, Zambales in northern Philippines February 8, 2017. /VCG Photo)