After several years of restrictive mining policies, the Philippines is now turning the course. The island nation southeast of China has relatively large reserves of gold, silver, copper and other strategic ores.
The ban on gold, silver or copper mining was introduced in the Philippines in 2017, when the local Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources clearly prioritized nature protection over the economic interests of miners. The ban is now being lifted by the current Philippine government. Gold, silver, copper and other industrially important ores will again be able to be mined in surface mines.
Since the change in the exchange rate in this area, the government has been promising to strengthen foreign investment in the domestic mining sector and, of course, to increase mining revenues. According to the Philippine authorities, up to a third of the island state’s territory (out of a total area of 300,000 square kilometers) has “great mineral potential”. At the same time, only about five percent of the proven reserves there have been extracted so far. The Philippine government estimates that revenue from mineral exports could increase to as much as $ 2 billion a year over the next five years.
