Philippines lifts four-year-old open-pit mining ban

The Philippines Government has ended open-pit mining ban as it seeks to revive the Covid-19-hit industry. The state is now looking to attract investments to support the development of stalled new mining projects, while helping to stimulate the economy.

In 2017, the government had issued an administrative order banning all open-pit mines of copper, gold, silver and complex ores. At that time, then-environment secretary Gina Lopez said that the ban was imposed due to the industry’s destructive nature to the environment.

However, Reuters reports that the current secretary, Roy Cimatu, has signed the repeal of the four-year-old ban, and according to the government, the policy reversal will lead to an increase in annual export revenue from mineral extraction industry by up to A$2.8bn ($2bn) over the next five to six years.

In April 2021, the government also lifted a moratorium on new mineral agreements to increase revenues, which had been in place since 2012. More than a third of 30 million hectares of total land area in the Philippines is considered to hold high mineral potential, yet less than 5% of mineral reserves have been mined to date.

China merges key rare earth producers

The Chinese Government has approved the merger of three government-owned rare earth miners into a state-owned giant, which will become the world’s largest producer of the resource.

The group will be formed through merging the rare earth units of the government-owned China Minmetals, the Aluminum Corp. of China and the Ganzhou Rare Earth Group. The new company will be named the China Rare-Earths Group and will subsequently control 70% of China’s rare earths output.

China already dominates the mining and production of rare earths. As of 2020, China produced 57.6% of the world’s rare earths, making it by far the world’s largest rare earth producer. The merger has been described as the latest step by the Chinese Communist Party to consolidate an industry beset by drastic price swings, by shrinking the number of Chinese rare earths producers from six to four.

CRU Group consultant Daan de Jonge said the combined entity would be second only to the China Northern Rare-Earth Group in terms of overall rare earths output. “This will mean that the pricing power of key rare earths, such as dysprosium and terbium, will be in the hands of one ‘super group’,” he said.

Pantoro and Tulla enter lithium exploration partnership with Mineral Resources

Pantoro and its joint venture partner Tulla Resources have signed an agreement with Mineral Resources to explore for lithium at their shared Norseman Gold Project. The joint venture will work to explore and develop lithium deposits across the Norseman Gold Project tenure in Western Australia.

Under the terms of the term sheet, Mineral Resources is to invest at least A$500,000 ($356,582) within six months and an additional A$2.5m ($1.78m) within 18 months. Additionally, Mineral Resources will complete a feasibility study, including the definition of a joint ore reserves committee-compliant resource within 24 months.

The completion of these tasks will provide the company with 25% of the lithium rights within the tenure, and it can earn an additional 40% of the lithium rights by funding the project to first production.

Mineral Resources managing director Paul Cmrlec said: “This new partnership is an outstanding outcome for Pantoro to maximise the value of a key mineral asset at Norseman.

“The agreement allows us to progress without any distraction from our core business of gold development and mining while maximising value for our shareholders.”