APEX Mining Company Inc., one of 13 firms that passed government audit under former Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez, said it has resigned from the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines.
Walter W. Brown, president and CEO of Apex Mining, expressed his disappointment and frustration with the Chamber’s response to the President’s call for the mining industry to clean up its acts. “I do not agree that we should blame the illegal small-scale miners when the mining industry is put to task for perceived destruction of the environment,” Brown said. “I would rather that the Chamber Regulate its own ranks and discipline its members who do not comply with existing mining rules and regulations and those who pay lip service to responsible mining.”
The Chamber is the industry organization of mining companies and businesses involved in the mining industry in the Philippines.
“Every organization has its own share of good members and bad members. But the mining industry is subject to intense scrutiny now,” Brown added. “If we do not clean up our ranks, all the good will go down the same drain with the bad, when the industry is taxed to death, as the President has warned.”
The company said higher metal prices pushed up its net income for the first quarter of the year to P100.2 million, more than three times higher than P39.3 million it reported last year. Parent company net income amounted to P112.2 million, double the P51.3 million last year.
Mill throughput of its Maco mine reached a record 135,904 tons, an average of 1,677 tons per day. Gold production of 14,969 ounces was the highest level for one quarter period thus far, an increase of 17 percent over the 12,779 ounces of gold produced from the same period in 2016.
Apex Mining’s silver production of 75,359 ounces this quarter was 23 percent higher than last year’s production of 61,085 ounces.