Jerry Brimo, Chairman of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines and CEO of Philex Mining Corporation, is one staunch crusader of the mining industry – at least the segment comprised by traditional large-scale mines and regulated by the 1995 Mining Act.

Brimo says a lot of work has been carried out by the industry to correct what he calls the “rampant misinformation” about mining, but it has been tedious and the progress slow.

Bad Image
Mining has always been hounded by negative publicity. Not without a good reason, though. Mining, in general, is probably one of the riskiest occupations in the world. Miners are constantly under the threat of cave-ins, accidents and, in some cases, even toxic chemicals. Furthermore, mining is a job which requires one to work closer with nature - not to preserve it, but to extract and exploit its mineral reserves; altering a place’s topography and creating harmful wastes in the process.

This is the usual mining story – that mining contributes negatively to national development. It did not help that mining projects in the country were opened to foreign ownership via a constitutional amendment in 1987 and subsequent passage of the Mining Act in 1995. This only added more color to the exploitation aspect of the bad publicity. As if it were not enough, the sector was further aggravated in 1996 when tons of mine wastes from an abandoned mining property of Marcopper leaked into a Marinduque river, devastating nearby rice fields, rendering aquatic resources unfit for consumption and resulting in the siltation of the river.

Winning Trust
Due to mining’s bad image, Philex’s prospecting activities or exploration of new viable mining sites were always accompanied by loud objections from concerned community folk including the local parish. It required additional charisma to convince people of the benefits of having a mining claim in the nearby area, if not within the community. A prerequisite for exploration had been to court communities into accepting and welcoming a mining project in a certain place. Philex officials had to seriously get along with the communities located mostly in mountainous areas, infested by insurgents no less. They had to convince townsfolk that mining would be a source of livelihood for them and a major contributor to the municipality’s coffers.

What a layman does not know is that large-scale mining companies export minerals – copper, gold, silver, chromite, and nickel – to the world’s commodity markets which in turn earns the country valuable foreign exchange. Mined ores exported to Japan are used to support industries like electronics, where derived copper serves as a major raw material. Mined gold also finds its way in international as well as local jewelry industries. Local mining activities also contribute to Bangko Sentral’s gold and silver reserves.

Painting a good image of the industry, nonetheless, would still be a hard sell most of the time. Brimo laments that this is because the mining industry in general has been badly attacked over the years, people have lost sight of what it can contribute.

City in the Mountains
Philex is one mining company which indeed has something to show for its good corporate citizenship – the Padcal Mining Community, which is described as a city in the mountains. Philex “created” the community about five decades ago on top of Benguet’s highest mountain range. Before Philex, Padcal used to be inhabited by very few upland indigents only, being unaccessible to lowland folks. Soon after, the mining development resulted in the migration to Padcal Mountains of many lowland folks which eventually comprised bulk of Padcal’s population.

Over the years, Philex built a good network of very long, winding, uphill roads that are worthy of luxury vehicles. The company also built churches, markets, medical clinics, and schools, and subsidized the education of their workers’ as well as other town folks’ children. Padcal Mine’s employees also enjoy free housing, utilities (electricity and water) medical and dental care, among other benefits. Padcal Mine also employs a comprehensive safety and health program to maintain a safe and healthy work environment for its miners.

Adjoining communities have benefited as well from the operation through company-assisted livelihood associations, infrastructure development, assistance to public schools, irrigation projects and the like.

Brimo explains that mining companies seem to have no other choice but to develop a mining site’s infrastructure, since mine deposits are usually found in far-flung areas where there are hardly any infrastructure to begin with. Aside from infrastructure, mining companies end up building self-reliant communities like Padcal. In fact, mining has spurred the growth of entire cities like Baguio, Sipalay, and Toledo, among others.

According to Brimo, Padcal Mine has paid close to P8 billion in taxes and has generated close to US$3 billion in exports. Since the passage of the Local Government Code in 1991, the share of the excise tax on mineral products to local government units has amounted to P50 million to the Benguet provincial government, P112 million to the municipalities of Tuba and Itogon, and P87 million to the host barangays Camp 3 and Ampucao.

Padcal’s Sound Environmental Practices
Not only are the people taken care of in Padcal, but the environment as well. Brimo boasts that the mine’s track record in social and environmental aspects is second to none. Padcal Mine, now on its 44th year of continuous operation, is the first copper-gold mining company in the Philippines to have acquired an ISO certification for its environmental management system, awarded in October of last year. ISO 14001 is a voluntary standard which considers compliance with environmental laws and regulation and commitment to continual improvement as its minimum requirement.

The company has also been proactive not only in environmental protection but also in its preservation – producing and planting a total of one million seedlings per year through its “Nursery sa Bawat Bakuran” Program. To date, about 1,530 hectares have been successfully reforested with more than four million seedlings of various tree species.

Balancing Perceptions
Taxes, export earnings, and jobs are the major contributions of mining to its host communities and the country in general. With a country that is richly blessed with natural resources, it is a pity that we have not tapped mining as a means to hasten national development.

Bad publicity on the industry has had its more-than-fair share of attention. With Philex providing a shining example on how mining companies can bring substantial progress to the remotest areas – such as the highest mountain ranges of Tuba and Itogon, Benguet – in a socially and environmentally-responsible manner, it is hard not to see that the fruits of responsible mining could indeed be tremendous.