Kingking mentioned.Mining group urges next admin to ensure stable business climate By Catherine Talavera(The Philippine Star) - April 1, 2022 - 12:00am MANILA, Philippines The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) is hoping that the next administration will ensure a stable business environment for the mining industry to enable it to support the countrys post-pandemic recovery efforts. In a speech before members of the Consular Corps of the Philippines, COMP chairman Michael Toledo described a stable business environment as one where policies are reliable, contracts and investments are protected, and the rules do not change mid-stream. Toledo pointed out the mining industrys tremendous potential to contribute to socio-economic growth, saying the country has an estimated untapped mineral reserves of $1 trillion or equivalent to three times its 2021 gross domestic product. He said that mining used to be a huge contributor to the Philippine economy, particularly in the 1980s when the industry accounted for 21 percent of the countrys export earnings and over two percent of GDP. In 2020, minings share in total exports and GDP plummeted to eight percent and to 0.6 percent. Toledo attributed the decline to a combination of factors, including policy roadblocks such as the recently lifted 9-year moratorium on new mining projects and four-year ban on open pit mining. Despite the lifting of the ban on open pit mining by the national government, the Tampakan project in Mindanao remains undeveloped due to a provincial code that still bans the mining method. In line with this, Toledo stressed that the next government must harmonize local and national laws to avoid conflicts on the ground.