Registration of small-scale miner becoming a problem for DENR

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources Mines and Geo-science Bureau (DENR-MGB) is serious in its effort in the registration and legalization of small-scale mining operations in the country, which in 2010 alone accounted for 62 percent of the country’s total gold production.

MGB-Cordillera Mines Environment and Safety Division Chief Engr. Zards Gacad affirmed that getting a consent from mining companies that have jurisdiction on the area that several small-scale mining operate, which is a documentary requirement for their registration, turns out to be the number one problem of small-scale mining operators in registering.

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This was expressed during the regional Provincial/City Mining Regulatory Board (P/CMRB) summit held at the MGB-CAR Conference Hall last week.

The MGB is currently conducting regional summits in different parts of the country in effort to come up with a unified, harmonized, and standard policy and procedure on the application and process of the small-scale mining.

“During the two day P/CMRB summit, our region’s small scale mining industry stressed this as one of the major issues that needed to be addressed. We need to look at this particular issue as apparently, it is being raised as one of the hindrances for our small-scale mining operators in obtaining the necessary mining permit," Gacad said.

Gacad, however, explained the issue cannot be addressed at the regional level and needed to be raise to the national level and possible solution approaches would be for congress to amend the governing mining law or for the Environment Secretary to issue a related Administrative Order.

According to Gacad, the issue not only affects small-scale miners in the region but it is a nationwide concern. In the Cordillera, there are about 10,000 or more small-scale miners that are affected by such concern.

Meantime, MGB National Assistant Director Elmer Billedo affirmed the big contribution of small-scale mining in the country’s mining industry as a whole.

Billedo stressed the government is serious in legalizing and harmonizing the operations of small-scale miners in the country aside from ensuring environmental safety measures for such operations, which is in line with the Aquino administration’s thrust of responsible mining.

According to him, the country’s economy would also gain for such effort, as the country could avoid the losses occurring in illegal transactions of selling small-scale mining mineral produce.

Billedo said, aside from what the government has accounted, the country is losing much from small-scale mining as some operators opt to sell their mineral produce, particularly gold, to black markets instead of selling it to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Since their operations are not yet legally registered, it is also hard for the government to monitor such transactions, he said.




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