As mentioned below, open-pit approval will come from DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu who is pro-mining with the right measures and enviromental protection in place. St. Augustine King-King meets all these conditions - pretty much a poster child of what DENR is looking for in a mining company...
The DENR chief vowed that pending applications would only be approved by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) “only after a thorough review and validation of the Final Exploration Report and Mining Feasibility Studies.”
As a new policy, Cimatu said, only delineated mineral resources and reserves that are plentiful to last at least a 10-year mine life or commercial extraction life for metallic minerals and seven years for non-metallic, will be considered.
The Mining Feasibility Study, he said, should also show that the cost to develop the mine can pay for all the expenses related to the mining operation, including operating costs, administration overhead, and milling cost if there is a processing plant, environmental cost, social development cost, and safety and health cost.
Only financially capable companies, or companies that are able to pay national and local taxes, royalties, local government fees, other national government fees, and interest and charges on loans, would be allowed to operate.
If the feasibility studies “show less than ideal returns from the operation,” Cimatu said the application would likely be turned down.
“It is also possible that new requirements will come up based on the newly issued order. The MGB-DENR-Department of Finance Working Group is set to convene to draft the Implementing Rules and Regulations of EO 130,” he said.
Moreover, applicants should prove that the benefits of the mining operation, which is of national interest, would far outweigh the risks from adverse environmental effects.
Cimatu said the DENR has already put in place additional environmental measures to ensure a balance in the care for the environment and the economic and social concerns of the mining industry. In 2018, Cimatu issued Administrative Order 2018-19 to provide new environmental policies that will ensure sustainable environmental conditions in every stage of the mining operation and minimize the “disturbed” area of a mining project at any given time.
Under the Duterte administration, environmental measures have been put in place, requiring mining companies to implement progressive rehabilitation, and limiting the areas to be disturbed at any given time.
Mining companies are also required to establish a progressive rehabilitation fund with a minimum amount of P5 million, as well as pay the mine waste and tailings fee based on the amount of tonnage of mine wastes and tailings which the company generates every semester.