MANILA, Philippines — The interagency Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) will conduct a review of mining operations all over the country every two years, Department of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said in a statement.
New mine sites will be covered by the biennial review, which targets to cover all existing operations within the term of President Rodrigo Duterte.
For the first round of the review covering the initial batch of 26 mines, the MICC said it expects the preliminary results in January next year and the final report by March.
“It’s the first time ever that we are going to do this review,” Dominguez had said at a recent MICC meeting, adding that the body was set up in 2012 under Executive Order No. 79.
The MICC is co-chaired by Dominguez and Secretary Roy Cimatu of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Five technical teams will carry out the review.
Finance Undersecretary Bayani Agabin said the clustering of the mines for review would be based on the types of minerals and locations, which are as follows:
Technical Review (TRT) Team 1 for gold, copper and nickel mines in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Cagayan Valley (Region II) and Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan (Region IV-B)
TRT 2 for iron and nickel mines in Central Luzon (Region III)
TRT 3 for chromite, nickel and iron mines in Eastern Visayas (Region VIII) and the Caraga (Region XIII)
TRT 4 an TRT 5 for nickel and chromite mines in Caraga
