Philippines lifts ban on open-pit mines‘SHORT-SIGHTED’: The revenue from open-pit mines would help the nation pay loans to fight the pandemic, an official said, while critics called the practice ‘destructive’AFP, MANILAThe Philippines has lifted a four-year ban on new open-pit mines, an official said yesterday, in a bid to revitalize the country’s COVID-19-battered economy that has been slammed by environmentalists as “short-sighted.”The move sees the government reverse a ban imposed in 2017, when the then-Philippine secretary of environment and natural resources blamed the sector for widespread ecological damage. Manila has since reversed course, encouraging mining investments to shore up government revenues as lockdowns and COVID-19 quarantine restrictions ravaged the economy. Philippine Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Wilfredo Moncano yesterday said that Philippine Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources Roy Cimatu had signed an order lifting the ban on open-pit mining in the country. “We offered the mining [industry] as a potential contributor to the recovery of the economy,” Moncano said. Open-pit mining directly extracts minerals on the ground and differs from other methods that require tunneling or underground mining.

Source: Taipei Times December 30, 2021 03:53 UTC