New mining rule to allow Tampakan
Posted May 8th, 2012 by Bloomberg & filed under Business.
The Philippines is set to unveil a mining policy that boosts the government’s take from resources contracts, identifies protected areas and still lets the stalled Tampakan copper-gold project of Xstrata Plc in South Cotabato to proceed, President Benigno Aquino said.
“It really is a question of balancing the benefits” against the damage mining can cause, Aquino, 52, said in an interview at Malacañang Palace on May 4. “We have 100 percent of the exposure in case of an ecological disaster. We get 2 percent of the gains.”
The administration will “soon” publish its new policy, which will increase the state’s revenue from the current 2-percent excise tax and ensure 78 areas are cordoned off for eco-tourism, Aquino said. Success in getting higher revenue would help narrow the fiscal deficit and improve odds of the Philippines winning investment-grade credit status.
Asked whether the guidelines would let the proposed $5.9-billion Xstrata copper and gold project to proceed, the President said “I think so.” Xstrata’s plans have been stymied by a local-authority ban on open-pit mining.
The Philippines, which has had annual budget deficits since a surplus in 1997, would join at least 11 countries from Australia to Ecuador that Deutsche Bank AG says announced plans to increase taxes or royalties on sales of resources such as gold and coal last year.
(Published in the Manila Standard Today newspaper on /2012/May/08)
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