Small miners’ ore limit defined. THE SUPREME COURT (SC) has backed a government agency’s strict definition of the production limit for small-scale miners. The high court’s second division, in a June 4 12-page decision, affirmed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) position in computing the annual 50,000 metric tons (MT) of ore restriction for small-scale miners under Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1899 and denied petitions for review of SR Metals, Inc.; San R Mining and Construction Corp.; and Galeo Equipment and Mining Company, Inc. July 21st DENR has defined the production limit in terms of “run-of-mine” per year, referring to ore from the mine before being processed. The measure lumps other materials with the sought-after mineral. In November 2004, then Environment Secretary Angelo T. Reyes issued a cease and desist order suspending the companies’ operations after their combined ore reached 177, 297 dry metric tons (DMT). The three firms questioned the suspension order before the Court of Appeals (CA), citing a Department of Justice opinion which states the term “ore” should be confined to nickel and cobalt and should exclude all other materials that do not have economic value. The CA, however, denied the mining firms’ petitions, saying DENR correctly adopted PD 1899’s restrictions for small-scale miners. The firms then elevated their plea to the Supreme Court. In its ruling, the high court noted the firms’ summary of shipments showed it took 151,612 DMTs of ore to extract 1,699.66 DMTs of nickel and cobalt (Ni-Co). “This means that if we are to subscribe to the mining corporations’ interpretation of how to measure mined ore by measuring only the Ni-Co and excluding the gangue, small-scale miners are virtually given the license to continuously collect large volumes of ore until the 50,000 DMTs of Ni-Co limit is met,” Associate Justice Mariano C. del Castillo wrote “It must be emphasized that mining, whether small or large-scale, raises environmental concerns,” SC added. “DENR saw it proper to conservatively measure the production of metallic materials apparently bearing in mind the more intense impact of such kind of mining to the environment.” Associate Justices Antonio T. Carpio, Arturo D. Brion, Jose Portugal Perez and Estela M. Perlas-Bernabe concurred with the decision. By Mikhail Franz E. Flores, Business World On-Line.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 10:31:21 +0000
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