THE Chamber of Mines expects investments in the sector to reach only $1 billion, its president, Benjamin Philip Romualdez, told reporters at the opening of the Mining Philippines 2011 Conference and Exhibition on Tuesday.

But Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Leo Jasareno was more optimistic, saying the Philippines expects $1.4 billion in mining investments this year. The amount doesn’t include investment pledges from President Aquino’s recent state visit to China and may double with the entry of Chinese investors, Jasareno said.

Last week MacroAsia Corp. said it signed an agreement with China’s Jinchuan Group Ltd. for a $1-billion investment in a mining project in Palawan.

Mining investments in the Philippines reached about $900 million in 2010, Jasareno said.

Despite the upbeat prospects, protests marred the opening of the mining conference with anti-mining and environmental groups demanding a mining moratorium and a pro-people mining policy. Instead of profit-oriented large-scale mining, protesters are pushing for responsible mining that will, at the very least, benefit Filipinos, particularly those living in mining-affected communities.                

Protesters from the Defend Patrimony Alliance, a network that includes citizens’ groups, farmers, fishermen, teachers, students, businessmen and faith-based organizations, were joined by various protest caravans from large-scale mining-affected communities.

After the protest, the group marched to the National Commission on Indigenous People and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) offices in Quezon City to express its indignation over the government’s policy to promote mining and allow the entry of big mining corporations.

The three-day mining conference and exhibition in Makati is expected to gather 500 participants representing local and foreign mining companies, including potential private investors from China, who are eyeing mining in the Philippines.

“While the nation’s mining magnates and foreign corporations have gathered to talk shop, the people have gathered here to advance a pro-people, pro-environment mining policy that would benefit our economy and communities,” Clemente Bautista, convener of Defend Patrimony said.

The group said the protest is not in opposition to mining and foreign investment, but to foreign-dominated and export-oriented production of the industry. “By just having a revenue-transparent and domestic-oriented mining production we could have saved billions of pesos that could have been used for local development and social services.  The prevalence of corruption and nontransparency in the industry, mining companies under report their production to evade taxes and short-change the government,” he said.

The protesters included indigenous peoples and fishermen from as far as Nueva Vizcaya and Cagayan who traveled all the way to Metro Manila to join the action.

In a statement, Lawrence Amwao, chairman of the Multisectoral Group Against Mining urged the government to stop mining operations in Nueva Vizcaya, which continue despite the opposition of the local government units and a recommendation from the Commission on Human Rights early this year to revoke mining permits there.

“We are direct stakeholders in that we are victims of mining aggression, yet our voices are left out of consideration in this conference,” he said.

Another group also decried the continuing magnetite mining operations by Chinese companies across the river banks and coasts of Cagayan. 

The protesters demanded that the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 be revoked and replaced by a new mining policy through House Bill 4315, or the people’s mining bill, which seeks to reorient the country’s current policy on the ownership and management of the industry toward national industrialization and local development.

The Advocates of Science and Technology for the People or Agham said the pattern of foreign miners’ profiteering at the expense of the local economy will persist without a national industrialization plan as framework.

 “If we truly want responsible mining in the Philippines, we should do away with the Mining Act of 1995 and pave for the passage of the pro-people people’s mining bill,” Giovanni Tapang, national chairman of Agham said.

“A mining industry that is not responsive to the needs of the Filipino people will only contribute to the deepening of poverty and the chronic economic crisis,” he said.

The Defend Patrimony Alliance chided the Aquino administration for opening small-scale mining areas to foreign investors.

The group was referring to the DENR’s plan to open another 5 million hectares to new mining investors. Currently around 1.5 million hectares are under mining concessions.

“The government continues to offer vast areas of mineral lands in the country to foreign and private corporations. This includes gold-rich areas of small-scale mining communities in Zamboanga del Norte, Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte, Camarines Norte, Masbate and Benguet,” Bautista said.

There are approximately 300,000 small-scale miners in the Philippines, which Bautista claimed contributes around 50 percent of the mining production in the country. In 2010 alone, the small-scale gold mining sector accounted for P43 billion in total mining production, he said.

“The government is opening these small-scale mining areas because there are proven gold reserves that ensure mining companies of huge profits. Small-scale miners and indigenous people in these areas are sure to be victims of community displacements and livelihood dislocations,” Bautista said.

“Experience shows that small-scale miners, particularly in Mount Diwalwal and Benguet, fiercely blocked the effort of past administrations to privatize their areas and successfully kept off foreign miners in their lands. Some of these confrontations led to loss of lives, especially among small scale miners,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jasareno said he is “optimistic” issues on Xtrata Plc. and Indophil Resources NL’s Tampakan copper-gold project will be resolved within the year.

According to him, Sagittarius Mines Inc., the Philippine venture of Xstrata and Indophil, are set to submit the requirements to proceed with the project. “The strategy is to resolve the process at the regional level. We are optimistic it will be resolved within the year,” he said.

The provincial government of South Cotabato banned open-pit mining, the extraction method to be used for Tampakan, the largest untapped gold and copper deposit in Southeast Asia.