Philippine minister says some mines need to be shut on eve of green audit resultsSome Philippine mines need to be shut given the environmental harm they have caused, the minister in charge of sector said on Wednesday, a day before the government announces the results of a months-long review of the country's mineral producers. "We'll be really, really strict," Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Regina Lopez told radio station DZMM. "There's some really that have to be closed," Lopez said, without identifying which mines she meant in the review to be published on Thursday. "That's what I see, because it's too much, it's extreme" Lopez said on the destruction some mines have caused. The Southeast Asian nation, the world's biggest nickel ore supplier, last year suspended operations at a group of 10 of its 41 mines - including gold and copper mines as well as nickel ore producers - for environmental infractions after launching an audit of the sector in July.

Source: VietNamNet News February 01, 2017 03:11 UTC