ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN THE PHILIPPINE MINING INDUSTRY

The resurgence of world metal prices, particularly gold, copper and nickel, has resulted in the revitalization of the Philippine mining industry in the last 5 years. Within the next two years, most of the 24 identified priority sites of the Philippine government would be fully operational. Legislative reforms have been made to streamline the permitting process, improve benefits sharing among stakeholders, and even place stringent environmental safeguards through multipartite monitoring. Still, environmental issues plague the newly opened mining operations - mainly borne out of under estimating the intensity and duration of precipitation events in a tropical setting. This bears on the stability of structures as well as in dealing with the large volume of acid rock drainage (ARD) produced in sulfide ore operations. Several case studies will be investigated.