Philippine Resources Journal - Issue 4, 2022

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MMD 625 Sizer Station processing wet and sticky nickel ore

Marcos Bets on Mining

Philippine President Ferdinand R. Mar

Jr. is barely in his first year of his

and already is facing a myriad of challenges from soaring inflation and public debt to a devaluating peso against the dollar. While trying to sustain economic recovery following stagnation from the COVID-19 pandemic, Marcos is hard put to tame the increasing costs of consumer goods and services and manage public debt which places the economy in a tight fiscal position. Rising inflation will also result not only in the lost of jobs but also declin ing pay for workers driven by higher costs of living. Conditions will deteriorate further with a devaluing peso against the dollar making it more expensive to import fuel for transport and power, and raw materials needed for local manufacturing.

Amidst the rising public liability, more taxpayers’ money will be utilized for debt servicing that will leave little for the pro vision of government services and the upgrade of infrastructure. Government must focus on improving transport facili ties, power transmission, and energy utili ties to attract foreign investment. Among the major risks hampering recovery are external factors like the prolonged conflict between Ukraine and Russia and a weaker peso against the dollar brought about by US Federal Reserve moves to hike inter est rates to tame inflation in their country. These make it more expensive for business es and consumers to borrow money and discourages demand for goods and ser vices causing the surge in prices especially of fuel and food, which can stunt economic growth not only in the US but also globally.

Government Turns to Mining

Heeding the call of business groups, the Marcos administration is turning to mining that could help ensure a sustainable re covery of the Philippine economy from the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the threat of a global economic slowdown. The benefit of mobilizing investments for mine development has been underscored by Department of Finance (DOF) Secre tary Benjamin E. Diokno, who assured the Marcos administration’s commitment to continue creating an enabling environment for mining activities. However, Diokno also pointed out that the government expects the mining industry to strictly adhere to responsible and sustainable practices. He further said that the industry should strike a balance between protecting the environ ment, uplifting local communities, and sup porting the government’s socioeconomic agenda.

Diokno reported that the Marcos eco nomic team presented the medium-term fis cal framework and for targets to succeed under the two-part framework, the mining

By Fernando Penarroyo

industry would have to perform well. Dur ing the Philippine Economic Briefing in New York where President Marcos delivered a keynote message to American investors, Diokno emphasized the administration’s commitment to help maximize the mining sector’s potential in attracting more foreign investments.

Playing Catch Up

The mining industry considered the Duterte administration as another wasted era for realizing the full economic potential of the sector. The Marcos government in herited a mining industry reeling from the anti-mining stance of the previous admin istration with the appointment of the late Regina Paz Lopez, a staunch anti-mining advocate, to head the Department of En vironment and Natural Resources (DENR). The appointment was bitterly opposed by the industry resulting in Lopez’s rejection by the powerful bicameral Commission on Appointments.

During her term, Lopez ordered the clo sure of mining operations and initiated a national mine audit conducted on behalf of the Mining Industry Coordinating Council. Mining stakeholders described the three years of closure of these companies as “arbitrary” and claim that at that time, the industry practically “gasped for breath.”

With COVID-19 bringing down the economy on its knees and a worsening economic fallout becoming inevitable, Duterte issued Executive Order No. 130 in April 2021, lifting the nine-year moratorium on the granting of new mining permits. Fi nally in December 2021, the Duterte admin istration succumbing to economic pressure, lifted the ban on open-pit mining.

It is well to note that at the height of the pandemic in 2021, the mining sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product

(GDP) improved to 5.2% from 5.1% in 2020 driven mainly by nickel demand overseas and high gold prices. This was in stark contrast to other sectors which suffered a decline due to the lockdowns that were imposed because of COV ID-19.

Early in the term of Duterte, then Senator Marcos lamented that the Duterte administration has failed to put up a vision for the mining industry. Worse, he said the gov ernment’s anti-mining stance has slowed down the development of the mining industry, citing among others, the “use-it-or-lose-it” policy the DENR implemented in 2010 in a bid to open to new investors mines that have not been operated on.

At that time, Marcos noted that the DENR has not issued any new mining agreements. He also criti cized the then proposed expansion of the “no-go” zones for mining and the proposed increase in the gov ernment’s share of 10 percent of gross output or 55 percent of ad justed mining revenue. Marcos said that if the government’s reason is only to receive more taxes out of the mining industry, such move would only deter investments in that sector.

However, Marcos said the min ing industry must also address other valid issues raised against it, apart from environmental con cerns. He reminded the industry to

ensure that affected local commu nities should derive more tangible benefits from mining and assure that necessary safeguards are in place for the protection of their en vironment and ecology.

Marcos Mining Policy Pronouncements

Now that he is at the helm of the presidency, Marcos said that he would push for “clean mining” and want to see some value added to mineral exports by selling pro cessed materials rather than ores. Instead of increasing taxes on min ing, Marcos is eyeing the collection of value-added taxes from the ex port of partially-processed ore.

The Marcos administration dem onstrated its commitment to pursue transparency in natural resource governance by rejoining the Ex tractive Industry Transparency Ini tiative (EITI) following the Duterte administration’s withdrawal in June 2022 over concerns on metrics and procedures used for assessing the country’s compliance with trans parency requirements.

In 23 August 2022, EITI invited the Philippines to re-state its com mitment to the EITI and build on the progress that the country has achieved in the past nine years. By returning to the EITI fold, the Mar cos administration cited the value of good governance and anticorruption measures in maximizing the extractive sector’s contribu

tion to resource mobilization and sustainable economic growth. The government hopes that its return to EITI will complement the Marcos administration’s agenda on trans parency and accountability.

The government implemented the PH-EITI, a multi-stakeholder group chaired by the DOF and composed of representatives from government, industry, and civil so ciety in 2013 pursuant to Section 14 of Executive Order No. 79, s. 2012 and Executive Order No. 147, s. 2013. Annual disclosure of con tracts, financial, economic, social and environmental data is manda tory for extractive industries pur suant to the DENR Administrative Order No. 2017-07.

Marcos in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) declared that infrastructure development will remain “a very high priority” with emphasis placed on enabling private sector contracts and in vestment incentives in the energy sector. Several experts in their post-SONA analysis, however, agreed that Marcos failed to men tion issues arising from mining. There were plans to look for ad ditional energy sources like natural gas reserves, build new nuclear power plants and invest in the re newable energy sector. This was unwelcome news for environmental and climate activists.

Civil society groups criticized Marcos for paying lip service to climate action in his SONA. They

urged Marcos to revoke his pre decessor’s mining policies that re laxed restrictions on mining. They also asked Marcos to convene an environmental summit that in volves the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, the mining industry, and communities affected by mining operations to discuss current min ing issues, stressing a need to pri oritize environmental concerns. The purpose of the summit according to civil society groups is to craft the government’s environmental pro gram, instruct lawmakers to priori tize the legislation of environmental bills, and launch a review on the categorization of mining as an “es sential industry.”

Marcos assured that the coun try’s resiliency and adaptation to the challenges pose by climate change will be on top of his admin istration’s national agenda. Speak ing at the 2022 DENR Multi-Stake holder Forum on Oct. 5, Marcos vowed to ensure environmental ini tiatives to combat climate change will be undertaken under his watch.

Industry Expectations

Industry groups continue to call for legislation to allow 100% ownership of certain businesses by foreigners. They emphasized that full foreign ownership would create massive incentives for for eign investment and entice a lot of successful foreign businesses to expand their operations in the Phil ippines.

Marcos is expected to be in fa vor of policies that will promote ex ports, and expand new and estab lished businesses. He will focus on the most lucrative industries which include mining and mineral pro cessing, which are poised to make the fastest and largest increases in revenues and productivity.

Despite the administration’s as surance of a conducive investment climate for the industry, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Ways and Means approved a bill proposing a new fiscal regime for the Philippine mining industry in August 2022. Representative Jose Ma. Clemente Salceda, Chair of the House Ways and Means Com mittee, filed House Bill 5022, which proposes an imposition of royalty on mining operations within and outside mineral reservations.

Under the committee-approved measure, a royalty tax of 5% will be imposed on the market value of the gross output of large-scale mining operations. The present law requires payment of 5% roy alty based on gross output only in

mining sites declared as mineral reservations. The bill also seeks to impose a windfall profit tax on a mining company if its total tax payments fail to meet the speci fied minimum government share from mining contracts. Under the bill, the minimum government share from all mining contracts would be 60% of net mining revenues. Mining companies operating under Mineral Production Sharing Agreements are not subject to windfall profit tax.

The bill seeks to impose a 10% ex port tax based on the market value of mineral ore exports. A mining company will be treated as a sepa rate taxpayer with respect to each of its mining contracts, which seeks to increase the tax base by ensur ing that losses from other mining projects will not be deducted from the more profitable ones. Like wise, to institutionalize transpar ency standards, the government will implement a mechanism for the public disclosure and scrutiny of all mining tax and revenue data in the extractives value chain.

While Salceda said the bill will raise additional P37.5 billion rev enues in just the first full year of its implementation, the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) said a law raising taxes on mining will once again set back the revi talization of the industry. COMP described the consolidated bill as onerous, raising the effective tax rate on mining to 51 percent from the current 38 percent. Initially withdrawn by the sponsor, the bill has been reportedly resubmitted to the Committee for further discus sion including the possibility of be ing watered down.

Perhaps the greatest challenge for Marcos is how to balance dip lomatic and economic relations between the United States and China. He acknowledged that the Philippines and the US have strong and enduring ties in trade and com merce with the US as the Philip pines’ third largest trading partner and second major source of foreign direct investments in 2021. Marcos and US President Joe Biden during a meeting in September 2022 also underscored the freedom of navi gation in the South China Sea.

On the other hand, Marcos is keen in renewing talks with China on joint oil and gas exploration in the disputed West Philippine Sea to seek a compromise with China as long as any agreement do not vio late Philippine laws. While pledg ing to foster closer ties with China, and describing Beijing as Manila’s “strongest partner” in the pan demic recovery, the Marcos ad ministration has been stepping up diplomatic protests against China’s alleged “incursions” in the disputed territory.

The real test for Marcos, how ever, is his government’s willing ness to assert the country’s eco nomic rights over the Reed (Recto) Bank and lift the moratorium on exploration and drilling activities in the area. Petroleum exploration companies with service contracts awarded by the Philippine govern ment have been unable to conduct seismic surveys in the area because of harassment by Chinese coast guards. There is an urgency on this matter as the Malampaya natural gas field is being rapidly depleted and imported liquefied natural gas may not be enough to fuel the pow

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er plants in the short term, which may then have to resort to diesel fuel, a more expensive alternative.

Another issue that needs to be resolved by the Marcos adminis tration is the controversial open-pit mine in Tampakan, South Cotaba to. Taking the cue from the Duterte government’s lifting of the open pit mining ban, the previous mem bers of the Sangguniang Panlala wigan of South Cotabato lifted its 12-year-old provincial ban last May 16, despite strong opposition from civil society, the church, and some traditional landowners. However, on June 3, Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo, Jr. vetoed the measure paving the way for the resumption of the ban on open-pit mining.

During the presidential cam paign, Marcos said that he is open to allow “sustainable” mining while expressing wariness toward open-pit mining operations. He believed that even if such mines are closed, harmful chemicals could leak out of the former sites. It remains to be seen how Mar cos is going to handle the US$5.9 billion Tampakan Copper-Gold Project, touted as the largest un developed copper-gold mine in Southeast Asia and among the biggest of its kind in the world.

The good news is that if there are any indications of the Marcos administration’s seriousness in at tracting foreign investments, then we can consider the reforms cur rently being implemented in renew able energy sector as an encour aging sign.

The Department of Energy (DOE) announced that a legal opin ion provided by the Department of Justice (DOJ) paved the way for the opening of foreign investments in renewable energy. The DOJ said that exploration, development, and utilization of “inexhaustible” renew able energy source are not subject to the 60:40 foreign equity limita tion as provided under Section 2, Article XII of the Constitution.

The DOJ further opined that in order to implement the full owner ship of RE resources by foreigners, the implementing rules and regula tions of Republic Act 9513 or the “Renewable Energy Act of 2008” particularly Rule 6, Section 19 must be amended to amend the 40-per cent equity limit for foreign inves tors.

The DOE has also made all qualified and registered renewable energy generating plants as pref erential dispatch in the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM), used for centralized trading of

electricity. This will encourage in vestments for additional capaci ties in geothermal, biomass, and impounding hydroelectric power plants. The guaranteed dispatch in the grid at the power plant’s full available capacities under mer chant pricing, will allow recovery of investments by renewable en ergy developers.

Finally, the DOE has also raised the percentage of the utilization of renewable energy for on-grid areas from one percent to 2.52 percent. The Renewable Portfo lio Standard, a policy mechanism which aims to increase the use of renewable energy sources for electricity generation, requires electricity suppliers, particularly the distribution utilities, to source or produce a specified fraction of their power supply from eligible re newable energy resources.

If the Marcos government is indeed serious to walk the talk, then now is the right time to take advantage of the current upswing of global spending in support of post-pandemic reconstruction, cre ating a resurgence of demand for mineral and energy commodities. Inviting investors to put their mon ey in our mining industry only to welcome them with the imposition of new taxes is always a zero sum proposition. Hopefully this time, our regulators will not cause the mining industry to miss the boat again.

References

Abarro, Mico, Marcos Jr. Open to ‘Sustainable’ Mining, Wary of Open-pit Mining” ABS-CBN News,

25 January 2022, https://news. abs-cbn.com/business/01/25/22/ marcos-jr-open-to-sustainablemining Marcos Admin Commits to Transparency and Good Gover nance in the Extractive Industries, 09 September 2022, https://www. dof.gov.ph/marcos-admin-com mits-to-transparency-and-goodgovernance-in-the-extractive-in dustries/

Next Admin Must Have a Vision to Realize Potential of the Coun try’s Mining Industry - Sen. Mar cos, 18 September 2015, https:// legacy.senate.gov.ph/press_re lease/2015/0918_marcos1.asp

Parrocha, Azer, Marcos Eyes VAT from Partially-Processed Ore Exports, 20 June 2022, https:// www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1177137

Sayson, ByIan C., Calonzo, An dreo, and Ahn, Shery, Philippines’ Marcos Eyes China Compromise on South China Sea, Bloomberg, 24 September 2022, https:// www.bloomberg.com/news/ar ticles/2022-09-24/philippinesmarcos-seeks-china-compromiseon-south-china-sea-oil

Sewell, Jared M., What We Should Expect from the Marcos Administration? 29 May 2022, ,https://www.kea-mining-andquarrying-services.com/philippinemining-prospects-under-marcos/ Zablan, Clarist, Green Group Urges Marcos to Reverse Duterte’s Mining Policy, Seeks Dialogue, 21 July 2022, https://news.tv5.com. ph/breaking/read/mining-policygreen-group-urges-marcos-toreverse-dutertes-mining-policyseeks-dialogue

Fernando

“Ronnie” S. Penarroyo specializes in Energy and Resources Law, Project Finance and Business Development. He is also currently the Chair of the Professional Regulatory Board of Geology. He may be contacted at fspenarroyo@ penpalaw.com for any matters or inquiries in relation to the Philippine resources industry and suggested topics for commentaries. Atty. Penarroyo’s commentaries are also archived at his professional blogsite at www. penarroyo.com

ASD TerraSpec 4 Hi-Res

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of low-concentration and low-reflectance

like iron-containing minerals such as serpentines and chlorites, is also possible.

A Study: Mapping the Chemical Composition of Nickel Laterites with Reflectance Spectroscopy at Koniambo, New Caledonia

Reflectance spectroscopy was applied as a sampling tool for deriving composi tional data of nickel laterites in the Koniambo deposits of New Cal edonia. The aim of the work was to test the feasibility of acquiring spectral reflectance data for re trieving quantitative compositional information on nickel laterites ex posed in mine bench walls as a routine sampling method for oregrade control in a mining opera tion. The spectral reflectance data record complex variations in min eralogical and chemical composi tions of nickel laterites.

A key method tested in this work is a calibration procedure for converting spectral reflectance to weight percentage of chemi cal components. A partial least squares (PLS) analysis method was used for this purpose. The abun dances of Ni, Fe, MgO, and SiO2, the four most important chemical components collectively determin ing the economical value and the metallurgical behaviors of lateritic nickel ores, were modeled by the spectral reflectance data of a set of reference samples. The mod els were then validated by an in dependent set of samples with known chemical compositions. The validated models were applied to spectral reflectance data acquired on mine bench walls to derive the chemical compositions of lateritic ores. The results have confirmed

that the chemical compositions of nickel laterites can be modeled and predicted with confidence by use of spectral reflectance data.

Parameters used for modeling were selected based on the con siderations of (1) simplicity of data processing, and (2) relationships between chemistry (Figure 2) and mineralogy Figure (1). Smoothed and background-removed spec tral reflectance data of the 400 to 2,500 nm wavelengths were used for modeling Ni, Fe, MgO, and SiO2.

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Figure 1. Mineralogy of Nickel Laterites

Figure 2. Chemometrics for Nickel Laterite using XRF and ASD Terraspec Hi-Res.

Claver LGU, TMC host

Shore Casting Competition

CLAVER, Surigao del Norte—

Adding more proof that mining and tourism can harmoniously coexist, Claver local government unit in partnership with Taganito Mining Corporation (TMC) hosted the first-ever jigging and shore casting competition in the municipality on September 2 to 4, 2022.

The competition, done in cooperation with the Marajaw Surigao Anglers, forms part of the Claver’s Panaghiusa Festival this year.

The activity aims to showcase the municipality’s abundant marine resources that exist alongside the presence of the mining industry.

The opening program kicked off with a tree planting activity at the TMC Biodiversity Area.

TMC Resident Mine Manager, Engr. Artemio E. Valeroso, welcomed the LGU Claver officials, headed by Mayor Georgia D. Gokiangkee, and the anglers allover Mindanao.

The anglers also visited TMC’s Lantaw Bay Garden which offers an overlooking view of TMC’s wharf and rehabilitated areas.

“An niagi, daghan mga issues ang Claver mahitungod na sa atong mga minahan. So karon, atong na prove, napamatud-an nato, nga ang atong kadagatan limpyo ug ang atong mga kaisdaan healthy gajud sila (In the past, Claver had many issues concerning its mining operations. But now we have proven that our waters are clean and our fishes are healthy),” said Mayor Gokiangkee, who led the ceremonial jigging during the

opening program in Barangay Hayanggabon.

Indeed, Claver’s abundant marine resources is being complemented by the local mining sector’s value-adding projects, chief of which is the provision of training for fisherfolk, financial assistance, product development, and various types of assistance.

Hinatuan Mining brings ‘green jobs’ to communities

The weavers in Sitio Campan dan, in the island of Hinat uan, have been contracted by Hinatuan Mining Corp. (HMC), a subsidiary of Nickel Asia Corp. (NAC), to produce 5000 seed ling pots made of ‘pandan dagat’ (pandanus tectorius) which they call “jobo pots” in a per-contract arrangement worth P25,000. HMC engages the weavers as part of the mining company’s ESG initiatives.

Rigena Perales is a 58-year old resident of Sitio Campandan and she understands the value add they contribute to HMC’s goal of getting rid of plastics used for seedling pots and helping aug ment the income of the people in the island.

“Nakakatulong sa amin ang ganitong pinagkakakitaan na kakatulong pa kami sa gusto ng HMC na hindi na sana gumamit ng plastic para sa mga seedling pots dahil mabuti sa kalikasan,” Perales confirms.

HMC is seriously adhering to the global clamor of employing ESG criteria in evaluating, meas uring, and reporting about the company’s impacts to the aspects of Environment, Social, and Gov ernance (ESG).

“With all the deliberations about climate change and busi ness sustainability it has become critical that our business moves are intertwined with ESG concerns and engaging the communities is a necessary aspect” says Engr. Francis J. Arañes, Resident Mine Manager.

Arañes explains that it’s the whole process of sustainability that HMC is aiming for. Right now, 40% of their seedling pots are “jobo pots” the big goal is at least 80% before the end of next year.

Jomer D. Tiamson, HMC En vironment Manager, says it en tails cost because a plastic seed ling bag is twenty-five centavos apiece (P0.25) while a ‘jobo pot’ which they buy from the weav ers costs the company Five Pesos each (P5.00)

“It is costly but whoever said that caring for the environment is cheap. Besides, we are cover ing all the letters of ESG in this proposition – protecting the en

vironment in adherence to the ‘no single use of plas tic’ campaign; aim to uplift the lives of the people in the communities where we operate; and adherence to the mandate of the govern ment as a responsible min ing company.”

Tiamson explains how ever that in the long run, the use of jobo as seedling pots is economically practi cal, other than the pots are biodegradable, because seedlings on jobo pots have a higher chance of survival.

Tiamson added that HMC is also looking at the matter of having enough materials for the hundreds of jobo pots they will need in the future and part of future plans is to augment the growing of pan dan dagat, which is also another opportunity for “green jobs” for the people in Hinatuan island, in Tagana-an Surigao del Norte.

The ‘jobo pot’ may be a small detail in the operations of HMC as a company, but it is indicative that ESG and Sustainability prop ositions are not just buzzwords or simply data reporting across the NAC organization but suggestive of a mindset of a responsible min ing company.

The weavers who work hand in hand with HMC produc ing jobo pots and other weaving products

Rigena Perales, 58, needs under 5 minutes to weave this seedling pot called “jobo”.

A breakthrough for MMD Sizers in Hard Rock Applications

The company MMD have been manufacturing Sizers for over 40 years, processing over 80 different materials in more than 70 countries worldwide. Sizers offer a compact and efficient way of com minution in primary, secondary and tertiary stage crushing, in both underground and open pit opera tions.

Sizers have gained notoriety in wet and sticky applications where traditional crushers have strug gled. However, MMD Sizers have been developed to thrive in appli cations not usually deemed appro priate for their deployment.

As Sizers originated in the coal industry, some believe that Sizers are only suitable for soft mate rial processing. This is simply not the case for MMD Sizers. MMD are specialists in Sizer technol ogy, and we have evolved Sizers to be successful in a wide range of operations, in particular hard rock applications. The additional benefits a Sizer brings, such as producing a good shaped product with minimal fines whilst also be ing compact, energy efficient, and maintenance friendly, make it an appealing option when it comes to selecting a machine for hard ma terial handling. Our dedicated inhouse technical development team has provided consistent research and development since the Sizer’s inception in 1980, and enabled MMD’s machines to operate suc cessfully in a variety of industries, processing some materials rated at over 250MPa.

Hard rock inclusions could be mixed with wet and sticky mate rial without any major alteration to Sizer design or detriment to perfor mance. Where some conventional

crushers struggle to cope with sticky material, the space between Sizer teeth and the constant agita tion of material within the machine prevents material build-up, this can be further enhanced where necessary by adding side cleaning combs. Ultimately, MMD Sizers can handle any combination of wet, sticky, hard or abrasive material. This is particularly useful in climates where extremes of rainfall occur throughout the seasons, effecting the characteristics of the material being processed or where material types vary across the mine site.

Specialist Hard Rock Designs

From the Sizer teeth design through to the drive train, the progress of these specialist heavy duty Sizers has taken many years of careful development and fea ture a range of adaptations to al low them to handle harder rock.

Sizer teeth designed for hard rock and highly abrasive appli cations are engineered from up graded material to resist wear, with additional hard facing in high impact areas. The tooth designs themselves are bulkier to ensure maximum longevity between wear component change-outs. MMD are constantly developing new tooth designs, using a combination of theoretical and physical stress test ing to find ways to improve wear components. The extra forces re quired to break harder material also requires larger shaft diame ters and heavy duty bearings.

Another key feature throughout MMD’s range of Sizers is the use of in-house designed gearboxes. Us ing only the highest quality manu facturing processes, materials and

components guarantees they are capable of dealing with the unique stresses inherent with sizing hard rock.

Each machine goes through stringent design procedures to en sure the highest quality. In some instances, physical trials are per formed to test sample material.

Robust Ancillary Structures

MMD offer turnkey solutions in the form of semi-mobile and fully mobile sizer stations. Due to the lightweight nature and balanced breaking action of the Sizer, MMD Semi-Mobile Sizer Stations for hard rock applications generally only re quire simple pontoon bases rather than costly heavy duty founda tions and civils. However, ancil lary structures still require some adaptation to matchup with the impact forces generated in hard rock applications. For example, a

The Sizer’s 3 stages of breaking

MMD Sizer featuring side cleaning combs.

Approaches to Make Strategic Mine Planning Successful

Part 2: Production-scale Plan, Optimized Production Schedule, SMP’s Risk Assessment

Ensuring optimal resource ex traction, maximizing value of increasingly scarce resourc es, and having confidence in mine plans amid market uncertainties is possible through DS GEOVIA’s SMP solutions.

In Part 1, we elucidate differ ences between mine plan and schedule, and strategic and tacti cal mine planning. We covered the approach in defining reserves and directional strategies.

Establishing the OptimalScale of Production

After determining the best start ing region and corresponding push back directions, mine planners need to create a production-scale plan that can adapt to shifts in demand over life-of-mine and make three (3) major decisions: mine sequences, cut-off grade and production rate. These decisions are correlated, thus, changing one will alter the other two decisions.

With the Hill of Value, we can visualize a value surface based on cut-off grade and production rate at the same time identify the point in the value surface that gener ates maximum value.

Using the GEOVIA Whittle and SIMULIA process-automation tools, mine planners can run 9,680 sequences with various produc tion rates, cut-off grades, and economic and market prices in less than a day.

Optimizing StrategicProduction Schedule

In this approach, the mine planner can now identify which (blocks) to mine, when to mine and is left with a question: “How to op timize strategic production sched ule that aligns with constraints, both technical and operational, and also maximize value (net pre sent value)?”

The answer? The need to un derstand what can be optimized in the mine production schedule— the schedule itself, cut-off grade, stockpiling and blending.

Optimizing schedule can maxi mize net present value (NPV) by identifying what material to mine from generated pushback and when these will affect mine’s rev

enue and cost orders. The use of Milawa algorithm in GEOVIA Whittle helps determine the “what and when.”

The widely used cut-off grade optimization is Lane’s theory. It states, “Low-value material is dis carded even if it is above the mar ginal cut-off grade. It will increase the mine’s NPV because the mine will spend more time early on processing higher-grade ore that otherwise would have been mined and processed later.”

Extractive blending maximizes value. GEOVIA Whittle provides “blend bins”, allowing mine planner to utilize the existing model with out needing to manually re-classi fy block model data to achieve the most suitable blending.

Assessing Risks of Your Strategic Mine Plan

Mine planners assess risks in the plan using multiple scenarios. GEOVIA Whittle alone produc es tens of scenarios. Thousands scenarios can be produced using GEOVIA’s SMP Workflow, and a combination of GEOVIA Whittle and SIMULIA tools.

Moreover, GEOVIA’s SMP Workflow enables planners assess risks in each workflow’s steps by incorporating uncontrolled varia bles’ sets. It also allows mine plan ners to “use uncertainty analysis to determine the accuracy of the definition of the final pit and push backs as well as the production scale and schedule,” said Romero.

Further, Monkhouse and Yeates, in Beyond Naïve Optimi

zation (2007), identified five (5) sources of these uncertainties:

• Orebody

• Processing

• Market

• Discount rate

• Changing technologies

Assessing the risks associated in processing, market and dis count rate is easier compared to orebody uncertainty for it does not require the use of conditional simulations.

However, it was found that the use of Monte Carlo simulation en ables to address orebody uncer tainty easily by incorporating to pit optimization routine the “to-beassessed” input variables along with performing optimization rou tine for each scenario, resulting to pit shell sets.

From some studies, GEOVIA SMP enabled customers to improve NPV from 10% to 50% and reduce stripping ratio by 16-20%, resulting lower mining costs. It also improved grade forecasting accuracy by 30%, reduced development cost by 10%, revealed best possible perfor mance scenarios, and saved time by converting manual one-month process to semi-automatic process of three days.

With Dassault Systèmes GEO VIA’s SMP, customers can focus on the importance of analyzing results and making decisions. To know more about SMP and other Dassault Systèmes Solutions and Services, contact DS Value So lutions partner Paramina Earth Technologies, Inc. through par amina_solutions@paramina.com or visit www.paramina.com.

REFERENCE: Dassault Systemes. (2022). Strategic Mine Planning Articles 1-4.

fully fabricated one-piece hopper hood, with a wear resistant skin rather than wear liners reduces the risk of liners falling off due to high impacts. This skin is replicated on the hopper itself, along with a Tshaped lattice design in the impact area to combat high impacts from the truck dump. Adaptations such as these ensure MMD machines are designed to endure the harsh mining environment and are built to last.

MMD Sizer stations undergo rigorous FEA, DEM and Explicit Dynamics analysis at the design stage. This examination provides data on impact forces, load condi tions, fatigue cycles, as well as ma terial flow characteristics, which assist in optimising the design. This is particularly useful for wet and sticky applications where mate rial hang-up and blockages could be problematic in features such as hoppers and chutework. At MMD, analysis and design work is under taken by experienced, fully quali fied engineers who combine their technical know-how with industry leading software to design the best

solution for customer specific chal lenges.

Case Study

In 2014, MMD delivered two compact semi-mobile Sizer sta tions to an island in the Philippines. These bespoke designs were in stalled to handle lateritic nickel ore.

The material within the mine is gen erally very sticky with hard rock inclusions, however during the wet season the material characteristics change to become extremely wet.

The turnkey Sizer stations featured 625 series Sizers with side cleaning

combs and D4 Apron Plate Feed ers along with supporting steel work and electrical package. Run of Mine material is directly fed by dump trucks in to the apron feeder which in turn draws material into the sizer controlled rate of up to 500TPH. Lumps of up to 800mm can enter the Sizer chamber, which is then efficiently reduced down to 150mm product. Both these ma chines remain active, providing trouble-free operation and minimal maintenance.

Watch the unit in action here: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=DSLdwNoAY80

One of the SemiMobile Sizer Stations processing Lateritic Nickel Ore.

2GO: Best positioned for special handling, custom processing

2GO, the largest and most in tegrated logistics and trans portation services provider in the Philippines and a subsidiary of SM Investments Corporation, is best positioned to provide special handling and custom processing to serve various industries such as mining, power, telecommunica tions and infrastructure.

With its own assets for endto-end solutions, 2GO’s Special Containers and Value-Added Services (SCVASI) is backed by 25 years of experience in moving all types of cargo.

Leveraging on the shipping business’s strength of sched ule, reliability, and speed, 2GO SCVASI continues to expand its capabilities and offer borderless solutions.

Apart from pioneering Less than Container-Load (LCL) reefer and isotanks in the country, 2GO SCVASI has proven expertise in its Project Logistics service—load ing and unloading deliveries of oversized and overweight cargos for power generation, transmis sion lines, mining operations, ce ment manufacturing, pipes for geothermal operations and gov ernment infrastructure to the most remote areas in the country.

2GO SCVASI is manned by professionals to survey efficient

routes, presenting methodologies on safe conduct of lifting of trans formers, generators, railways, ce ment manufacturing equipment, solar and other industrial goods, and other equipment that require special handling.

It currently has two custom ized 25-tonner Boom Trucks that will eliminate mobilization and demobilization of forklift on these

weight categories.

2GO SCVASI, the Philippines’ leading provider of reefers, flexibags, isotanks, and project logistics, continues to make sig nificant investments to soon de liver long dimension wind-power propellers.

To know more about 2GO SCVASI, visit https://www.2go. com.ph/scvasi/

COMP

Director Calls Unnumbered Bill as ‘Killing the Goose’

By Marcelle P. Villegas

Atty Ronald Recidoro, Exec utive Director at Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, described the new Unnumbered Bill in mining as “Killing the goose to get to the golden eggs”.

He expressed his sentiments and professional insights regard ing the new mining bill during the recent Philippine Mining & Explora tion Association (PMEA) Monthly Membership Meeting last 5th of September. Atty Recidoro was one of the guest speakers for this meet ing.

One of the speakers for the evening was Atty Dennis Quintero, who gave a presentation on the Le gal Updates for the industry. Atty Quintero is the Head of Energy, Mining & Infrastructure at Qui sumbing Torres. He was joined by his colleague, Mr Kristian Angelo Palmares in explaining the Mining Bills Update, particularly about the Unnumbered Bill. This was followed by the reactions and comments by Atty Recidoro.

“An Act Establishing the Fiscal Regime for Mining Industry”

Atty Quintero explained that the Unnumbered Bill is a substi tute to House Bills 373, 2014, 2246 and 3888. Its approval is currently pending with the Committee on Ways and Means.

Here are key points about the bill, as summarised by Atty Quin tero:

~ At the beginning of the 19th Congress, House Bills 373, 2014, 2246, and 3888 were filed and subsequently referred to the Com mittee on Ways and Means. Having similar subject matters, these were consolidated into the Unnumbered Substitute Bill.

~ The bill seeks to impose mar gin-based royalties on income from large-scale metallic mining opera tions at a rate of 5% of the market value of the gross output whether inside or outside mineral reserva tions. It seeks to cover both Miner al Production Sharing Agreements and Financial or Technical Assis tance Agreements.

~ Mining contractors are also re quired to pay minimum government share when the primary govern ment share is less than 60% of the net mining revenue. The minimum government share shall be the dif

ference between 60% of net mining revenue and the primary govern ment share during the calendar year. In this regard, “primary gov ernment share” shall consist of all direct taxes, royalties, fees, and related payments required by ex isting laws, rules, and regulations to be paid by the contractor.

~ The bill likewise imposes a 10% tax on the market value of raw ore exports.

~ Furthermore, it treats each mining operation covered by a min eral agreement or FTAA as a sepa rate taxable entity.

~ The bill also provides that the National Government shall have a share of 60% of the gross collection derived by any government agen cy or instrumentality from excise taxes on mineral products, royal ties, and such other taxes.

~ Note: Before they were con solidated to the Unnumbered Sub stitute Bill on 24 August 2022, HB 373, 2014, and 2246 were filed on the following dates:

• HB 373 – 30 June 2022

• HB 2014 – 14 July 2022

• HB 2246 – 22 July 2022

Effects of the Proposed Bill on the Mining Industry

Atty Recidoro said, “We see very clearly that the provisions will be deadly for the mining industry. If 5% royalty across the board, and a 50%-50% government share, plus a 10% excise tax on raw exports will kill the industry, it will not be com petitive and the revenues they are forecasting of something like 38 bil lion will not happen.”

He also emphasised the unusu ally rushed passage of the house bill. “If you were in attendance at the meeting last Aug. 24, you will see that the four versions of the bill contained very different provi sions. Now they provided four very different tax rates and had differ ing fiscal regimes. So in cases like these, the usual procedure should have been for the Committee to re fer the bill plus the DOF proposal. The DOF proposal isn’t even actu ally a bill. It was just a written pro posal from the DOF. It was not yet filed as a bill. Some undersecretary from the DOF just went to the Com

Photo by Marcelle P. Villegas

“We see very clearly that the provisions will be deadly for the mining industry. If 5% royalty across the board, and a 50%-5%0 government share, plus a 10% excise tax on raw exports will kill the industry, it will not be competitive and the revenues they are forecasting of something like P38 billion will not happen.” – Atty Ronald Recidoro on the new Unnumbered Bill

Atty Ronald Recidoro, Executive Director at Chamber of Mines of the Philippines at the PMEA Monthly Membership Meeting, Manila Elks Club, Makati City.

mittee at that day and gave the Committee a copy of the proposal.”

“So given these four versions plus the DOF proposal, the usual process should have been for the Committee to create a technical working group, and then try to hash out the differences and come out with a common substitute bill. This did not happen clearly. This was not done. The Committee voted instead the DOF proposal in its entirety.”

He said that the Committee threw away House Bills 373, 2014, 2246, and 3888. “They just chose to adopt the DOF version which we have not yet seen. Nobody has seen it at that time. So it is very strange from a procedural and substantive due process perspective.”

Furthermore, he clarified that they find this unusual because of the circumstances surrounding the mining fiscal regime. “The Marcos Administration has come up very strongly for mining. They have identified mining as key driver for this administration and they are se riously wanting to push it forward.”

Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs

Additionally, Atty Recidoro pointed out that the 5% royalty for all large-scale metallic mines, re gardless of whether they are within mineral reservations or outside of mineral reservation, together with a 60%-40% sharing is exception ally heavy. “If passed, that regime would make the Philippines mining fiscal regime uncompetitive versus other mineral-rich countries such as Peru, Chile, and South Africa.”

“In a recent study we did at the Chamber of Mines to model the average effective tax rate (AETR) of the DOF proposal, we found that the proposal would amount to something like 71% average effec tive tax rate, much higher than the AETR for the current FTAA which we beg at around 63.5%. AETR is essentially government’s tax take.”

“So the proposal with net gov ernment 71% AETR over life of mine… that is exceptionally heavy! It will be higher than the following countries: Peru at 51.9%, Queensland, Aus tralia at 51%, Canada at 50.4%, and South Africa. More importantly, it would bring up the AETR for exist ing MPSAs from the current 45.3% to 71%. So we were alarmed. This is an exceptionally heavy imposition which will kill the industry.”

In response to this, Atty Reci doro said that the Chamber has been exerting efforts to commu nicate this fact to the Committee

Chair, the House leadership, the Senate, and even the Executive Department. The goal is to make them all aware that the DOF pro posal, if passed, will not accomplish the objectives of the bill which is to increase revenues from the extrac tive sector, to fund government programs in disaster risk manage ment, environmental rehabilitation, and economic recovery.

“If they push this bill, there will be no increased revenues from mining. This is essentially [the] gov ernment killing the goose to get at the golden eggs. It’s just going to kill the goose. It would lead to the non-starting of three large-scale mining projects that they are al ready in the development stage which we envision will bring in an additional 1.2% to Philippine GDP once they start operating.”

He further noted that this would lead to closure of several large marginal mines, which would then lead to large-scale unemployment in the areas where these mines are operating.

“We have also issued a stronglyworded statement denouncing the substitute bill passed by the Com mittee essentially saying that this will not achieve the revenues it is targeting and will only underline the instability of the country’s mining policy, making the country more un competitive to foreign investment.”

“Fortunately, it seems that our efforts, led by my chair, Atty Mike Toledo, and Gerry Brimo have borne fruit. Just this morning, we received word that the house bill which has already been approved by the Committee has been recalled.”

He said that the Committee has recalled and has re-opened discussions on it which was sched uled last 7th of September, to allow stakeholders to voice their posi tions on the bill.

Atty Recidoro said that the Chamber intends to give a presen tation that will emphasize the neg

ative impact of the DOF proposal and ask that the Committee should consider the passage of House Bill 373 instead.

House Bill 373 – A More Equitable Bill

“House Bill 373 is not a new bill.

It was previously passed in the 18th Congress as House Bill 6135 also by Salceda. This House Bill 373 will seek to establish a new mining roy alty scheme over and above the existing excise tax under the NIRC.”

“However, it really imposed a tax not on gross output but rath er it is conditioned on companies achieving a minimum margin. And as you achieve a larger margin, your tax rate will also increase but this tax will be imposed on income, and not on gross output, which means that you will only be taxed only when you’re making money.”

“If you have no margin then you have no additional tax which we have always insisted. This is the more equitable, more progressive way of doing it.”

Atty Recidoro said that the Phil ippines is probably the only min ing country in the world that relies heavily on gross-based royalties and excise tax, which makes the tax rate heavy.

“The bill also proposes the es tablishment of a natural resource trust fund to be taken from gov ernment shares which will then be distributed to LGUs, to support educational programs, disaster risk management, and rehabilitation of abandoned mines. For as long as it is taken from government shares, I don’t think we have a problem. In fact, we will support that wholeheartedly. The Chamber of Mines has publicly given its support to the passage of House Bill 373 and we believe that if passed, it can serve as a competent financial baseline for re-negotiations, to guide DENR, MGB and DOF when we re-negoti ate new mineral agreements.”

PMEA Monthly Membership Meeting guest speakers, Atty Ronald Recidoro (Chamber of Mines of the Philippines)

and Atty Dennis Quintero (Quisumbing Torres), with PMEA President, Mr Joey Nelson Ayson. The event was held at the Manila Elks Club, Makati City. Photo by Marcelle P. Villegas

Faster Soil Sampling for CopperSilver Projects Using Portable XRF

An Explorer’s Story

Aportable X-ray fluores cence (XRF) analyzer is a powerful tool to have in your mining and geochemistry field kit. One explorer uses three Van ta™ handheld XRF analyzers for copper-silver exploration in Peru.

Todd Houlahan, Olympus’ Director of International Mining, recently sat down with Lars Dahlenborg, President of Hannan Metals over come challenges in exploration.

The San Martin Project: A Copper-Silver Targetin a Dense Rainforest

The top challenge Hannan Met als faces in its copper-silver explo ration projects is the terrain.

Hannan Metals’ San Martin project—a strata bound sedimenthosted copper-silver target—is in the Amazon foreland basin, east ern Peru.

This region shows evidence of a basin-wide mineralization sys tem active over hundreds of kilo meters. This area is difficult to ac cess due to dense rainforest and steep slopes. To get to the nearest field site, geologists must walk 1–3 hours from the closest 4x4 road. Another challenge is the limited outcropping.

While prospecting creek and stream sediments are effective methods to reduce the search space in this terrain, the dense vegetation and lack of rock out crops—less than 1%—make it diffi cult to prove the continuity of min eralization between outcrops. As a result, Hannan Metals needs The San Martin Project to perform sys tematic soil sampling and analysis to map mineralization under cover.

Faster Soil Sampling for Copper-Silver Mineralization

Hannan Metals turned to Vanta handheld XRF for faster soil sam pling. To test its analytical capabili ties for the project, Hannan Metals compared the Vanta XRF data to the lab data from conventional soil sampling.

The results exceeded expecta tions:

· Excellent spatial correlation between the Vanta analyzer and lab data for copper (Cu)—the pri

mary element of interest.

· The Vanta analyzer de tected the same anomalies as the lab data in the same dynamic parts per million (ppm) range.

· Very good correlation with known outcrop mineralization.

Importantly, the Vanta analyz er produced fitfor-purpose data for key elements: Pathfinder el ements: copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), arsenic (As), and nickel (Ni)

Major elements: potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), barium (Ba), silicon (Si), and tita nium (Ti)

Establishing a Quality Control Program for the Copper-Silver Exploration Project:

All in all, the Vanta analyzer provides many benefits for the copper-silver project:

· 60% faster sampling rate enables the geologists to sample a larger area and increases the chance for discovery.

· Faster communication of re sults to management and other stakeholders.

· Enables real-time decisions

during soil sampling—helpful for determining infill or extension of sample traverses

· Minimal sample size: reduces 800 kg of soil per month.

· Good value: payback time of one Vanta analyzer is about four months at the current sampling rate (this only accounts for hard assay costs—not the other logisti cal benefits).

Learn more at https://www. olympus-ims.com/en/insight/fast er-soil-sampling-for-copper-silverprojects-using-portable-xrfan-ex plorers-story

Built to last: Customdesigned heavy duty conveyor systems to suit your applications

Chief industrial conveyors are ruggedly built to with stand years of use in harsh operating conditions and are cus tom designed to fit your applica tion and engineered for outdoor purposes or combined into an ex isting manufacturing process.

Chief offers heavy-duty open belt conveyors for a wide range of bulk handling applications.

Our belt conveyor is custom designed that help maximizes the efficiency of your operation.

Available in a wide range of belt widths, including standards from 18-96”, with load capacities up to 10,000 metric tons per hour, we have designs available for in stallation in port facilities, coal, mining, biomass, and any indus trial operation imaginable.

Components are manufactured to precise standards from heavy structural members to provide easy installation and strength. It’s intended to remain engineered to minimize downtime and operate reliably long-term, despite harsh conditions, which will enhance the safety and reliability of the opera tion.

Considering future demands, we look forward to good pros pects for the material handling in dustry in the mining sector.

Whether starting with a used conveyor system, rebuilding an existing one, or with a new cus tom-built system, we have the experience, resources, and ca pability to assemble the perfect conveyor package for your appli cation.

TÜV NORD GROUP

Importance of coal quality from mines to power stations

Despite common use of coal in power generation, one overlooked aspect is that coal is a significantly heteroge neous and complex material, and its fuel characteristics vary sig nificantly in the deposits in any direction depending on the geo logical conditions.

Therefore, a thorough geologi cal investigation to understand these changes is not only essen tial in characterizing fuel prop erties, but also minimizing the economic, technical and financial risks associated with coal quality parameters.

A geological model supported with comprehensive database is the appropriate starting point in managing the drastic changes that customarily occur in fuel properties.

Once the coal quality variation is determined from the model, it may be possible to schedule the mine production from different parts of the pit according to the fuel specs.

However, it is also important to establish a good, robust coal quality monitoring program to manage the changes occurring the field by implementing a wellcontrolled representative sam pling and testing program man aged by a dedicated coal quality department.

Relying on only a few param eters to characterize the entire coal deposit, and consequently the fuel specifications could result in high risk and potentially expen sive consequences.

If coal quality is used effec tively at any part of the coal chain from mine production to power station, it is possible to make significant cost savings,

mitigate risks and provide a fuel clean enough to reduce pollutants and unwanted emissions.

In order to minimize the ad verse effects of coal quality, it is important to implement some fundamental measures at the coal pit and power plant stockyard if both the coal mine production and power plant generation are particularly part of an integrated power generation system.

However, these measures also applicable to any mine that sells its products in the open market to any power generation utility, or any power station that buys ther mal coal from any coal producer.

Mitigation measures on the adverse effects of coal quality include a number of crucial steps:

• Establishing a good geologi

cal and exploration/coal quality database containing all neces sary information to characterize the target seam/s feeding into the power station. This is also a fundamental part of the power stations’ design criteria to deter mine the operational inputs for the duration of power station’s lifespan;

• Implementing a good robust sampling and sample monitoring program reflecting accurate rep resentative results obtained at pit level and power plant stockyard;

• Performing the appropriate tests and assays which represent the real performance of coal and its waste product prior to plant design and during plant opera tions; and

• Providing fuel by blending the ROM product from the pit based on the coal quality and boiler de sign parameters.

In order to minimize all the risks associated with coal qual ity parameters, it is important to establish a comprehensive data base.

A geological model is the ap propriate starting point in manag ing the drastic changes that ha bitually occur in fuel properties.

Once the coal quality is deter mined, it is possible to schedule the mine production from differ ent parts of the pit.

LeopardTM Di650i iDrill Packages: Designed To Match Your Needs

New iDrill automation pack ages for Leopard™ DI650i are designed to match your automation needs.

iDrill automation complements existing automated drilling func tionalities with several new fea tures such as drilling stabilization, automated collaring, automated cleaning and detaching from hole.

The result is an optimized iDrill drilling cycle where the operator only needs to monitor the process.

The iDrill automation matches seamlessly with AutoMine® Sur face Drilling to enable fully au tonomous Leopard™ DI650i fleet operation from a control room.

iDRILL PERFORMANCE

Optimized for customers who are looking for automated opera tor supporting functions in cabin operation-based drilling or ease of operation with full radio remote control use.

Check - Full cycle one hole drilling automatics with iClean.

iDRILL NAVIGATION

Optimized for customers who are looking for automated opera tor supporting functions in cabin operation-based drilling or ease of operation with full radio remote control use, equipped with highaccuracy TIM3D Drill Navigation System (DNS).

Check - High-accuracy TIM3D drill navigation system.

AUTOMINE® LINE-OF-SIGHT

Optimized for customers look ing for automated operator sup porting functions in line-of-sight tele-remote operations, powered by AutoMine®.

Check - Tele-remote operation up to 3 drills by one operator.

AUTOMINE® CONTROL ROOM

Optimized for customers look ing for high-end automated con trol room-based teleremote op eration, powered by AutoMine®.

Check - iDrill drilling cycle functionalities; automatic stabili zation for drilling and detachment from the hole.

AUTOMINE® AUTONOMOUS

Optimized for custom ers looking for high-end automated control roombased fully autonomous hole-to-hole tramming, powered by AutoMine®.

Check - Autonomous operation. Hole-to-hole planning and tramming tools for drilling sequence.

Leopard™ Di650i: Time For A New Leader

Leopard™ DI650i offers long-term pro ductivity and superior stability: trustwor thy and robust main components integrat ed with the latest technical solutions.

The new Leopard™ has been designed for scalable automation, easy maintenance, and efficient operation. The new iCab offers the most silent and ergonomic cabin in DTH drill rig. The cabin is spacious, silent, and safe. Also, iCab is designed to provide clear and improved visibility to the drilling area.

TECHNICAL DATA

Efficiency and Cost-Reduction: QES Technology Philippines, Inc. Commitment to Mining Industry through Complete Mining Solutions

By Engr. Paula Angeline Bacani

The mining sector continues an optimistic performance for year 2022. As early as Q1 2022, the metallic mineral production value kicked off the year with a 36.21% or PhP12.92 billion growth from PhP35.69 billion in Q1 2021 to PhP48.61 billion.” [1] The steady growth of the industry is indicated by the opening of new metal mines, mostly Nickel mines, and the expansion of existing mines.

With the increasing production of Nickel Ore, QES Technology Philippines, Inc. has been a longestablished partner of these mines on complete mining solutions from: [I] Geological Exploration on sales and service of handheld XRF and analyzers. [II] Sample Preparation on sales and service of crushers, pulverizers, presses, fusion machines, grinding machines, milling machines, drying ovens, etc. [III] Laboratory Solutions on sales and service of XRF, the benchmarked Spectro XEPOS, KF moisture analyzer, Auto-Titrator, lab consumables, and furniture/fixtures. And [IV] Environmental Monitoring for Compliance on sales of air quality and water quality monitoring systems.

For year 2022, QES Technology Philippines, Inc. shares this another record-breaking sale of 14 (as of October 2022) laboratory XRF units to our clients, partners, and customers on the Mining Sector.

Committed to quality and higher efficiency, QES not only supply analyzers but also help its partners solve challenges on costly maintenances of heavy mining equipment. This year’s #QESInAction held product presentations and exhibits on mining areas in Cagayan, Zambales, Palawan, Camarines Norte, and Surigao introducing its New Mining Solution: The Spectro Scientific On-Site Fluid Analysis. Machine condition monitoring based on oil analysis is a mandatory maintenance practice for the Mining Equipment Fleet.

The Spectro Scientific On-Site Fluid Analysis is a solution for common challenges on site such as: [I] Remote Sites wherein it can be difficult to rely on outside lab analysis for oil testing because it takes long and by the time it’s determined there is a problem, there has been a major breakdown already. [II] Harsh Environments where mining equipment operate in conditions that are hard on the components and exposes the vehicles to large amounts of particulate contamination and debris that damage the hydraulics and gears. Constant monitoring of oil condition will prevent unexpected breakdowns. [III] Expensive Oil drains for large vehicles. Oil drain interval can be extended safely as long as the oil condition is at continuous monitoring. Reducing the number of oil drains required per vehicle even by just one time per

year can significantly generate savings across a fleet for large mining vehicles. [IV] High Repair Costs. Oil analysis will help identify potential problems early – before they undergo breakdowns and costly repairs. Large mining equipment fleet can be enormously expensive to repair so mitigating a small problem before it becomes a breakdown will be a huge cost savings. [V] Downtime of Vehicles Impacts Revenue when a vehicle is unavailable due to mechanical problems it means it is not available to provide necessary service and will impact the revenue generating service it provides.

Since equipment in the Mining Industry is frequently exposed to extreme environmental and working conditions, this new mining solution promoted by QES is an effective oil analysis program that keep these important assets in operation by reducing unexpected failures and costly unscheduled downtimes, thus effectively induces cost-cutting on operations.

To assure partners continuous growth, QES joins the 2022 6th CARAGA Mining Symposium and 68th Annual National Mine Safety and Environment Conference as exhibitor and organizes related technical webinars. You may scan below to visit/join their official Facebook group to keep update on their incoming webinars. Demo room is located at Unit 507, Page 1 Building, Acacia Avenue, Madrigal Business Park, Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa, 1780 Metro Manila, Philippines.

For inquiries and consultations, you may directly message: qtpmarketing@qesnet. com or visit www. qesnet.com

Reference: [1] Retrieved October 2022 from https://mgb.gov. ph/attachments/ article/1197/Q1%20 2022%20Metallic%20 Review.pdf

Taganito Mining wins national TESDA ‘Kabalikat Award’

CLAVER, Surigao del Norte -Taganito Mining Corporation (TMC) has been chosen as this year’s TESDA Kabalikat Award recipient, a recognition given an nually to agency partners with demonstrated track record in help ing equip Filipinos with employable, specialized skills.

TMC is one of the only two re gional qualifiers for the coveted award, and the only regional con tender in the Industry Sector cat egory. It was also the first time for the company to be nominated for the award, courtesy of the TESDA Surigao del Norte office.

Award finalists include entities from the local government units (LGUs), the legislative branch, the national government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), non-government organizations (NGOs), private businesses and companies, and local and interna tional organizations.

In winning the national award, TMC has been cited in develop ing, enhancing, and implement ing training programs that have resulted in better employability of Filipino skilled workers.

In particular, TMC has earned praises for its TESDA-aligned programs such as the communitybased training for Heavy Equip ment Drivers and Operators, as well as its various livelihood pro grams benefiting the residents of Claver and neighboring areas.

Similarly, the company has won plaudits for its in-house skills train ing program, tech-voc scholarships and apprenticeship programs, and

other skills enhancement training and assessments that have made it possible for graduates to obtain their National Certificate.

Likewise, the TMC Training and Assessment Center (TMC-TAAC) has been providing free assess ments to both employees and con tractor’s workers.

TMC’s accreditation as an as sessment center enabled its certi fied workers to be accredited as sessors in the province, resulting in an increase in the number of certi fied workers in the local construc tion sector.

In addition, TESDA credited TMC with having surpassed the required minimum total score for training, investment in TVET either through the procurement of train ing tools and equipment, the allo

cation for scholarship, donations made to communities to promote and support TVET through liveli hood skills training, especially to priority barangays identified as peace-challenged barangays.

These programs and initiatives, the agency said, contributed to ad vancement of technical education in Surigao del Norte.

Integral Offers Sustainable Mining Operations with Emerson

By Mark Adrian D. Lenon

Mining is entering a new era. This phase, known as Mining 4.0, recognizes the role of digital transformation in sustainable mining operations. With more affordable and simpler solutions to monitor plant assets, it has become viable for mining com panies to assert total control over their operations.

Emerson practises a “HumanCentred” approach to innovation. In this light, the company ensures that its solutions eliminate unnecessary work, reduce complexity, and embed knowledge for the bene fit of less-experienced workers.¹ Hence, end-users of all skill lev els can utilise an ever-changing technology landscape.

Human-Centred Design is applied in Emerson’s AMS As set Monitor. As an edge device, the AMS Asset Monitor utilises pervasive sensing (sensors) to determine asset condition and embedded prescriptive analyt ics (built-in analytics) to provide user-friendly results. Com bined, these features enable operators to make data-driven decisions without complication.

The benefits of automated moni toring using the AMS Asset Moni tor far outweigh manual monitoring programs. Since field data is collect ed and diagnosed before prompt delivery, operators already receive actionable data. Using these in sights, asset reliability can be max imised. Furthermore, mining compa nies can take relief knowing that the AMS Asset Monitor is also a simple and cost-effective way to monitor balance of plant equipment. When

scaled properly, sustainable plant operations can be achieved.

Rotating machinery is one of the areas where the AMS Asset Moni tor proves to be crucial. Since motors are used in various processes, pre dictive and planned maintenance are needed to avoid a potential downtime. Additionally, in-depth in vestigations can be done using the Emerson Peak View Plus software, which is capable of distinguishing between failure types and providing valuable insights.

Data-driven decisions are vital

to ensure reliability across plant assets. In partnering with Emerson, mining oper ators can utilise assets run ning at peak efficiency to achieve long-term sustain ability goals.

Emerson products are available through Integral.

As a designated Local Busi ness Partner of Emerson, In tegral provides world-class solutions. Apart from con necting customers to Emer son’s products and expertise, Inte gral also offers a variety of services for clients located in the Philippines.

For more information about Em erson and available local services, customers may contact Integral through the following: PLDT Land line (+632) 8696-3634, (+632) 75763716, and (+632) 7373-8453; GLOBE Mobile (+63) 917-851-7716; and SMART Mobile (+63) 939-907-0967 and (+63) 943-708-5400. Website access is available through https:// www.integralindustrial.com.ph/.

Reference:

https://bit. ly/3CSKijP

Robit is a strongly internation alized· growth co·mpany, servicing global customers and selling drilling consumables for applications in underground and surface mining, construction, geo-technicar and well drilling.

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ADVISORY PANEL FORMED TO IRON OUT POLICIES IN ENERGY SECTOR

Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Raphael Lotilla has announced that the agency has formed a law and en ergy advisory panel that will ad dress the challenges and bottle necks in the regulatory framework in the energy sector.

In a virtual press conference, Lotilla said DOE has pooled senior legal advisers, which include re tired Chief Justices Artemio Pan ganiban and Reynato Puno who will serve as private citizens and will not assume any public office.

Legal advisors from the private sector are also joining the advisory group, he added.

“The functions of the law and energy advisory panel include advising the department on vari ous energy-related reform initia tives and legal matters, including

promotion of indigenous as well as low-carbon sources,” the DOE chief said.

Lotilla said for the initial discus sions of the panel, the legal advi sors will tackle legal matters in the upstream oil and gas sector in gen eral and the Malampaya-Camago project.

Earlier, Lotilla said President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. directed the agency to ensure a certain, stable, and clear regula tory framework to address uncer tainties in the legal environment for investments in the upstream industry and also to create a better investment climate.

“In order to attract sufficient investment for that, we need to be able to clearly indicate what are the policies of the government… These are the things that have mo

tivated the department, particular ly myself, to benefit from the wis dom and experience of our senior legal advisers.”

“Because whatever we are go ing to propose to the President and Congress will have fundamental effects on the lives of our people not only (in) the present but also in future generations,” he said.

Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla

DMCI bags first subway tunnel project

Premier contractor D.M. Con sunji, Inc. (DMCI) is set to build its first subway project after its joint venture with Nishi matsu Construction Co., Ltd.(NCC) of Japan received the Notice of Award for the Quezon Avenue and East Avenue underground stations and tunnels for the Metro Manila Subway Project (Contract Package 102).

“We are very excited to be part of this historic project. Once com pleted, the subway will help ad dress urban mobility issues in our nation’s capital,” said DMCI Presi dent and CEO Jorge A. Consunji.

To be funded through a loan

from the Japan International Co operation Agency (JICA), the multicurrency denominated infrastruc ture project is valued at PHP17.37 billion, USD 31.77 million, EUR5.49 million and JPY4.39 billion, roughly equivalent to PHP 21.21 billion as of November 11, 2021 exchange rates and exclusive of value added tax.

Scope of work for Contract Package 102 includes design (to the extent required), supply, installa tion, construction, testing, commis sioning and training. The project will take around 67 months to com plete.

The contract is still subject to concurrence by JICA and compli

ance with the documentary re quirements as provided under the April 2012 guidelines for procure ment under Japanese official de velopment assistance loans.

As of June 30, 2022, DMCI had an order book of PHP43.7 billion, which was mostly from other joint venture projects and building con tracts.

Founded in 1874, Nishimatsu Construction Co., Ltd. is the leading tunnel contractor in Japan, having worked on more than 1,000 tunnels. Its portfolio includes Singapore’s National Library Board Building, London’s Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Hong Kong’s Lap Kok Airport.

NORTH-SOUTH COMMUTER RAILWAY ‘FULL-SCALE’ CONSTRUCTION TO BEGIN FEBRUARY 2023

Full-scale construction of the North-South Commuter Rail way (NSCR) project is set to begin by February next year, an official of the Department of Trans portation (DOTr) said.

The NSCR is a 142-kilometer railway system that will stretch from Clark International Airport (CRK) in Pampanga all the way south to Calamba in Laguna with a travel time of about one hour and 45 minutes, about half the time it would take to drive.

Once operational, it is seen to have a daily passenger capacity of 350,000 and will have direct connections with other transportation projects such as the Metro Manila Subway.

In a Laging Handa briefing, DOTr Undersecretary Timothy John Batan said the NSCR is the coun try’s largest railway project to date and the largest project funded by the Asian Development Bank, with the NSCR’s four recently signed contract packages worth a total of PHP91 billion.

“We’ll begin pre-construction activities by the latter part of 2022 and by February 2023, we’ll be gin full scale construction works,” Batan said.

During its construction, he said the project is seen to create al most 10,000 jobs and boost the economic activity in project areas. Homeowners and informal settlers affected by the NSCR, he said, will be compensated through coordi nation with social housing finance corporations.

LiuGong 870H Wheel Loader: Designed for Tough Applications, Energy Efficient and Productive

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Compact enough for mining, with power needed for heavy construction

The new Boomer E10 and E20 from Epiroc offer great flexibility and coverage thanks to their small footprint and powerful, multi-purpose BUT 45-booms. As part of Epiroc’s Smart series, the drill rigs are equipped with automation features that increase operator safety and productivity, and come with an optional battery-electric driveline for reduced environmental impact and healthier underground conditions.

Suitable for both mining and construction

Besides being compact enough for mine development, both drill rigs feature BUT 45-booms with telescopic feed beams. These powerful booms fit a wide range of applications and can tackle the requirements of heavy-duty construction work with ease.

“This is yet another automation break-through for face drilling where Epiroc leads the way to safer and more productive mining and construction operations,” says Sami Niiranen, President at Epiroc Underground division.

Safe productivity with outstanding operatorassistance features

With features like teleremote drilling, auto level and setup assist, Boomer E10 and E20 strengthen productivity and safety for operators. The optional teleremote drilling feature lets the operator work at a safe distance from the face and enables drilling during shift changes.

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Furthermore, both drill rigs provide operators with setup assist. Thanks to the carrier being equipped with an advanced scanner measuring the distance to the walls and face, positioning the rig perfectly in the mine or tunnel becomes an easy task for the operator.

“In combination with digital

Epiroc releases new Boomer E10 and E20 drill rigs

drill plans, setup assist eliminates time-consuming repositioning. It also ensures both productivity and great quality”, says Camilla Spångberg.

Designed for great operator comfort and safety

In the comfortable and safe cabin, operators can enjoy low sound levels (<65 dbA) and less vibration, and a new panel interface for tramming. In addition, great visibility and multifunctional joysticks ensure that operators always keep their eyes on task.

German-PH Chamber Reports Promising Economic Growth During 2022

By Marcelle P. Villegas

Aquick look at the future:

• The Philippines is ex pected to join the free trade agreement -- Comprehen sive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. This would benefit the Philippine metals industry.

• The German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act will have a signifi cant impact on business practices across the Asia-Pacific (including the Philippines, which lists Germa ny as its 10th largest export trading partner).

Looking at the numbers, the eco nomic outlook of 2022 looks bright. According to a report presented by German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GPCCI), the Philippine gross domestic prod ucts (GDP) showed favourable de velopment and promising growth during the first half of 2022. From their report on “GPCCI Market Watch: Philippines Shows Promise in the 1st Half of 2022”, the Philip pine GDP grew more than expect ed due to high public spending, relaxed COVID-19 mobility restric tions, and a rebound in investments and household consumption. Due to these factors, the Asian Develop ment Bank (ADB) raised its growth outlook for 2022 from 6.0% to 6.5%, halfway through the year. [1]

During the second quarter, the GDP growth decreased to 7.4% due to global headwinds like geo political tensions and inflation. This is lower than 8.3% growth during the first quarter. Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) also forecasted that inflation rate of 5.4% and raised key interest rates to 4.0% from an initial 2.0%. Afterwards, the De velopment Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) revised their full-year 2022 growth forecast to 6.5% to 7.5%.

“Despite the slowdown of the second quarter growth, it is nota ble that the Philippines still had the 2nd highest GDP growth recorded for the second quarter in the ASE AN region. For the first half of 2022 overall, the Philippines’ GDP grew by 7.8% - the highest among the five biggest economies in ASEAN.

The Philippine Central Bank stated that domestic economic activity is seen to be restored to its pre-pan demic level in the second half of 2022,” according to GPCCI.

Several changes in 2022 took place which gradually contributed to mobility in most sectors. “As the country continues its efforts in the transition to the new nor mal, the Department of Education implemented mandatory face-toface classes for the school year of 2022-2023. Aside from this, the mandatory wearing of face masks outdoors was also lifted. It was im

posed for more than two years to contain the spread of the coronavi rus in the country.”

“According to experts, the out look of the country’s economy re mains positive. The materialization of the initiated economic reforms and the continuation of key pro grams such as the infrastructure expansion by the new administra tion shall support the robust eco nomic development for the 2nd half of the year and beyond.”

Looking at the Philippine inter national trade activities for the first half of 2022, both exports

“Although there is a seen decrease in the bilateral trade between Germany and the Philippines when comparing the first half of 2022 and 2021 data, it remains to be a major contributor to the latter’s trade relations with the EU.”

– From GPCCI Market Watch

and imports increased year-onyear with a growth rate of 7.09% and 26.69% respectively. “Imports grew much faster than exports by a significant margin with the Philippine trade deficit increasing by USD 11.84 billion as a result of this.” [1]

The Philippine Statistics Au thority reported that June 2022 marked the 17th straight month of import growth.

The export and import ac tivities in 2022 include significant movement in the minerals indus try. “Philippine exports are mainly composed of electronic products accounting for 55% of the total exports or USD 21.16 billion for the first half of the year. Other com modity groups that widely con tribute to the exports of the coun try are (1) other manufacturers with 7%, (2) cathodes and sections of cathodes, refined copper with 3%, (3) coconut oil with 3% as well.” On the list of imported individual com modities, Electronic Products were also on the top of the list, compris ing 24% of all imports or USD 16.3 billion in total. Minerals, Fuels, Lubricants and related materials, Transport Equipment, Iron and Steel had shares of 17%, 8%, and 5% respectively, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

For both exportation and im portation, the top 10 trading part ners of the Philippines include the neighboring countries of the Philip pines in Asia. “In terms of its export partners, the United States and Eu ropean Union (EU) countries such as German and the Netherlands have been its non-Asia partners that belong to the top rank. While for its import partners, the United States is the only non-Asia country that belongs to the list.”

More on the non-Asia trade partners of the Philippines, for the first half of 2022, the United States of America ranks as No. 1 in the list of international trade partners for Exports, with USD 5.94 billion. Netherlands is on rank No. 7 with USD 1.45 billion, while Germany is on rank No. 10 with USD 1.31 bil lion. For Imports, United States of America is on rank No. 5, with USD 4.40 billion.

“Although there is a seen de crease in the bilateral trade be tween Germany and the Philip pines when comparing the first half of 2022 and 2021 data, it remains to be a major contributor to the lat ter’s trade relations with the EU. Exports of the Philippines to Ger many, decreased by 8.46% as the previous USD 1.42 billion in 2021

went down to USD 1.30 billion in 2022. Similarly, imports declined by 9.15%, when the USD 1.06 billion in 2021 was cut to USD 960 million in 2022.” [1]

On a final note, what are we to expect in the future in terms of economic growth? GPCCI Market Watch listed down some trends and factors that can affect eco nomic growth in the future. Here are the trends to look out for:

1) Global Inflation: The Interna tional Monetary Fund (IMF) recent ly gave out unfavorable projec tions for the global economy in its recent report with inflation in ad vanced and developing economies projected to reach 6.6% and 9.5% respectively. As seen in the Philip pines, the country experienced a 6.4% inflation rate in July of this year (the highest recorded inflation rate in 4 years) due to a rise in com modity prices. Experts also believe this rise in inflation will peak in the 4th quarter of 2022. Consequently, analysts say this bleak outlook on inflation for the rest of the year may lead to the Philippine Central Bank raising the key interest rate to 4.25% by the end of 2022.

2) CPTPP: The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership or CPTPP is a free trade agreement currently comprised of 11 countries, Austral ia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. The Philippines, along with Thailand and South Korea, is expected to join the agreement within the next few years with Chile supporting their potential accession. By joining this free trade agreement, various sectors in the country such as elec tronic equipment, apparel, machin ery, and metals would benefit.

3) Supply Chain Due Diligence

Act: By the start of 2023, the Ger man Supply Chain Due Diligence Act will come into force. Initially ap proved in 2021, the act aims to en sure that German businesses with more than 3000 employees will have no links in their supply chains that violate human rights or envi ronmental laws. And by 2024, the size requirement will drop to 1000 employees. Hence, companies that wish to enter the German market or work with large German companies will need to have humane and sta ble business practices. Experts say this new legislation will have a sig nificant impact on business practic es across the Asia Pacific; including the Philippines, which lists Germa ny as its 10th largest export trading partner. Also, the EU is currently in the process of creating the EU Due Diligence Act, which aims to apply similar supply chain standards for companies across all EU member states and beyond. [1]

Reference:

[1] Ramos, Nicole (4 October 2022). GPCCI Market Watch: Phil ippines Shows Promise in 1st Half of 2022.

Acknowledgment:

Thank you to Ms Nicole Ramos, Senior Consultant at German-Phil ippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GPCCI)

8F Doehle Haus Manila 30-38 Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue, Brgy. San Isidro, Makati City Philippines, 1234 Telephone: +63 (2) 8519 8110 / Telefax: +63 (2) 5310 3656 Website: https://philippinen. ahk.de/en/

By Marcelle P. Villegas

The expansion of the Sangley Point International Airport (SPIA) is a huge infrastruc ture project that is scheduled to be operational by 2028. The local government of Cavite province has chosen the SPIA Development Consortium last September to im plement the USD11 billion project.

SPIA Development Consortium representatives were delighted for being chosen for the job, but they also said that the challenges ahead are great.

The project will also commence in association with South Korean and European companies. The Engineering, Procurement and Construction consortium will be headed by Cavitex Holdings and the local financier House of In vestments Corporation. They will also work with Samsung C&T.

Munich Airport International (MAI) is known for their 5-star quality services and for their trademark best-practice solutions, thus they have the slogan “Trusted partner for smart money and am bitious airports”. MAI also offers services like airport management, consulting and training services around the world. For the past 30 years, Munich Airport Group has been a leading ORAT service pro vider and a global airport opera tor. (ORAT refers to Operational Readiness and Airport Transfer, the process of taking a newly constructed airport or part of an airport and turning it into an op erational facility.)

Additionally for this project, Philippine MacroAsia Corporation will be responsible for the logistics and technical services. Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong Ltd. will be a development planner. More de tails of the structure of the consor tium will be further defined in the future.

The consortium is set to sign the

Munich Airport helps out with Sangley Point Airport expansion

Joint Venture and Development Agreement this October. After that, they have 18 months to de velop the project design and busi ness plan. This will be followed by actual construction of the airport’s expansion design.

The SPIA is dubbed as the Philippines’ new “gateway to the world” and instrumental in boost ing the country’s economy. SPIA is intended to reduce the dense activities in Ninoy Aquino Inter national Airport (NAIA) in Metro Manila and the traffic congestion in the region. The airport project anticipates for the expected in crease in passenger numbers for the next 30 to 40 years. The local government in the province hopes that the airport will generate around 50,000 jobs. [1]

Looking at the stages of the project, the first phase includes the construction of the runway which is targeted to be finished by 2028. The airport is designed to accommodate 80 million passen gers per year.

Eventually, with the construc tion of additional runways, the airport could serve 130 million passengers a year. There are also plans to have a four-lane road, perhaps with parallel train routes to the airport. Experts said that good transportation connections to the previously less developed region are vital for the success of the airport.

They also see this airport pro ject as a possible competitor for the airport in Bulacan. [1]

Back in February 2020, the existing regional airport in Sang ley was reopened by the order of the former president Rodrigo Du terte. He ordered the transfer of some flights from NAIA to Sangley in order to lessen the air traffic in NAIA during the pandemic.

Eventually, the Sangley airfield was modernised due to the sup port from government funds of around US$ 25 million. The small terminal can handle 160 passen gers. Although this project was not originally part of the govern ment’s Build, Build, Build program, it was later on included in their list of projects, thus the SPIA now has this expansion project.

Reference: [1] Hirschle, Alexander (26 September 2022). “Manila expands airport with Ger man participation”. Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI). Retrieved from - https://www.gtai. de/de/trade/philip pinen/branchen/ manila-erweitertflughafen-mitdeutscher-beteili gung-897832

Photo credit: Sangley Point In ternational Airport - https://www.fa cebook.com/sang leypointairport/ Munich Airport - https://www. munich-airport. com/international/ about-us

Energy Transition for Oil, Gas and Coal Sectors

By Marcelle P. Villegas

Most industries are dependent on fossil fuels to operate. Howev er, in response to climate change, there is a global trend that en courages countries to join in the energy transition of using green technologies. While in theory, this strategy looks promising and fea sible. However, in some countries, like in the Philippines, this is a ma jor challenge.

This was the scope of the roundtable discussion (RTD) last 4th of May 2022 during PH-EITI Conference with the Department of Finance and Department of En ergy. The theme of the event was “Preparing the Extractives for En ergy Transition”.

To tackle the issues behind en ergy transition, PH-EITI and the Department of Energy- Energy Policy and Planning Bureau (DOEEPPB) organised this RTD to pro vide energy stakeholders with in formation on existing policies and future government programs that will lead to the shift to a sustain able and low carbon economy. “Using the PH-EITI platform, the RTD intended to elicit stakeholder perspectives on energy transition and thresh out issues on the impli cations and effects of the transi tion on various sectors.”

Moreover, the of goal of the RTD this year is to inform the par ticipants and involved industries about the Philippine’s progress in implementing transition plans, policies and commitments, as well as the rollout of government pro grams to sectors that will be af

fected by the shift.

In the RTD, the different pre senters and speakers discussed how the various sectors intend to address the issue of climate change in order to prevent future environmental problems.

On our previous article about this event, we reported the views of the mining industry about the energy transition, where most mining companies are ahead in taking proactive steps to achieve environmentally friendly opera tions and proper waste manage ment.

This time, we shall highlight the reaction of the oil, gas and coal industries about the global transi tion.

Dir. Dona Minimo, Director, International Finance Group, De partment of Finance, reported that the Philippines greenhouse gas emissions are currently a mi nor contributor to global warm ing at approximately 0.33% of the world share of greenhouse gases (GHD) emissions. “However, due to its economic development and rapidly growing population, the Philippines is projected to have sharp increases in CO2 emissions over the incoming decades. GDP growth is expected to strengthen seven to 8% in the medium term.”

Dir. Michael O. Sinocruz, OIC-Director, Energy Policy and Planning Bureau, Department of Energy, said that the Philippine Energy Plan 2020-2040 is con nected with the goals of Ambisy on Natin 2040 which represents the collective long-term vision and aspirations of the Philippines in the coming years. In support of these aspirations, he shared that

the DOE formulated the 9-point energy agenda, among these are providing access to electricity for all Filipinos, promoting energy ef ficiency, and establishing a proconsumer framework.

According to the report in the RTD, “The mining, oil, gas, and coal industries are among industries directly affected by the global shift to net-zero emis sions. As the energy transition progresses, fossil fuel producing or dependent communities and countries will face challenges sustaining revenues and the na tional economy in general. Com munities that rely on revenues and jobs generated by fossil fuel production are among the most vulnerable to the transition.”

Therefore, in order to cope up with the difficulties that the tran sition will bring, producing com munities and countries will have to find alternative revenue sourc es to replace the lost income.

“On the other hand, increased deployment of modern renewable energy and energy-efficient tech nologies also mean an increased demand for rare earth elements and other mined inputs. This will require a substantial ramp-up of existing production capacity. This means transition to a sustainable low carbon economy will defi nitely reshape the extractive in dustries.”

Director Arnulfo A. Robles, Executive Director of the Philip pine Chamber of Coal Mines, Inc. (PHILCOAL) reported the per spective and achievements of the coal sector on the energy transi tion. He mentioned that Semirara has become the template for coal

Marcos keen on pursuing ‘grander, more ambitious’ infra projects

President Ferdinand “Bong bong” Marcos Jr. said his administration is eyeing to pursue “grander” and “more am bitious” infrastructure projects to create jobs, improve connectivity, and provide convenience to Fili pino commuters.

Marcos made this remark dur ing the groundbreaking rites for the construction of the Ortigas and Shaw Boulevard stations of the Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP) at Metrowalk Commercial Complex in Pasig City.

“Let the breaking ground of this subway system signal our inten tion to the world to pursue even grander dreams and more ambi tious endeavors that will bring comfort and progress to our peo ple all over the country,” Marcos said in his speech.

He reassured the public of his ad ministration’s commitment to not only continue but also expand the gov ernment’s infrastructure program.

“Be assured that this adminis tration will take the lead in identi fying, pursuing, and implementing projects as part of the Build Better More Infrastructure Agenda that we have laid out,” he added.

Marcos also expressed hope that Filipinos’ aspirations for a

“better, brighter, and more pros perous” country enkindle their purpose to work for the nation’s advancement.

‘Small inconveniences’

Meanwhile, Marcos said he looked forward to “brighter days” once the construction of the MMSP’s two stations is completed.

“Although it is a given that the construction of these structures will take time and cause disrup tion, let us be optimistic and just count these small inconveniences as a small price to pay for the fruitful results that this program, this project will yield,” he said.

He expressed hope that the project would be completed as scheduled so that the public may soon enjoy its benefits.

With the MMSP, Marcos said his administration anticipates helping people “skip long lines of traffic” and spare themselves from the “perils of commuting.”

He said the government also sees more business opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors, as well as additional economic ac tivity with the improved linkages of key areas and business districts in the Metro and the availability of stalls and other stores in the sta

tions and nearby markets.

“As our people gain more time by cutting long hours of travel, they can now engage in more worthwhile and productive en deavors, making time for greater self-improvement or equally im portant spending quality time with their families,” he said.

Joining Marcos at the event were Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Ambassador Kazuhiko Koshikawa; Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) chief representative Takema Sakamoto; Senators Grace Poe, JV Ejercito, and Mark Villar; and Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto

The MMSP is a foreign-assisted project under the Official Devel opment Assistance program and funded by the JICA.

mining in the Philippines. Regard ing environmental restoration and biodiversity, Semirara Mining and Power Corporation (SMPC) has conducted reforestation and bio diversity conservation goals, and reforestation and wildlife species propagation.

The company is currently stud ying and developing a concrete carbon transition roadmap. Part of SMPC’s strategy is to continu ously monitor new and emerging climate-change legislation meas ures. They also assess its impact on business sustainability and future growth. SMPC bagged the Special Submission Category in the 2021 ASEAN Energy Awards.

For oil and gas sector’s per spective on energy transition Atty. Jose Ma. Emmanuel A. Caral, Sec retary of the Petroleum Associa tion of the Philippines. He disclosed that while companies remained focused on exploring, developing and producing the conventional

oil and gas business, other com panies have already started to diversify, and have made explicit commitments to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Atty Caral noted that there is a relatively slight growth in energy mix for power generation particu larly in the wind and solar energy. He mentioned that oil and gas companies should choose to sup port the UN-Paris Agreement, it can significantly reduce emissions and energy consumption; lower

carbon energy, reduce invest ment in traditional oil and gas. Unfortunately, he said that the Philippines continues to be heav ily dependent on conventional fuels for transportation (by land, air or sea). He concluded that en ergy security is the replacement of affordable energy source to consumers.

Reference: PHEITI Website at https:// pheiti.dof.gov.ph/resources/

PBBM: Ormoc airport upgrade to spur growth in Eastern Visayas

President Ferdinand R. Marcos expressed optimism that the development of Ormoc Air port will bring more progress not only to the city but also to the East ern Visayas region.

This, after Marcos inspected the rehabilitated Ormoc Airport after gracing the city’s 75th Charter Day anniversary celebration held at the Ormoc City Superdome in Leyte.

“President Ferdinand R. Marcos on Thursday said opening the Or moc Airport to commercial flights will usher in more development in the city and the Eastern Visayas region,” Malacañang said in a press release.

In September, Leyte 4th District Rep. Richard Gomez asked the De

partment of Transportation to help Ormoc City encourage airline com panies to serve the Manila-Ormoc route. The total area of the airport’s passenger terminal building has been expanded from 150 to 1,350 square meters.

The airport’s 2,042m x 36m runway underwent developments from 2018 to 2020 such as asphalt overlay and strip grade correction project and runway widening.

Developments included the renovation of the passenger ter minal building destroyed by Super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013, as well as the construction of the Civil Avia tion Authority of the Philippines administration building.

The Ormoc Airport is currently

being upgraded with the con struction of the landing area and taxiway, and the expansion of its Apron. The PHP329-million pro ject is expected to be completed in March 2023.

Once completed, Ormoc airport will be able to accept bigger com mercial aircraft.

“The rehabilitation and renova tion of Ormoc Airport and other airports in the country, under the supervision of the Department of Transportation - Philippines and Department of Tourism - Philip pines, is part of the administration’s program to strengthen the Philip pine tourism sector,” the Office of the President said in a separate Facebook post.

P855M ADDITIONAL FUNDING PROPOSED FOR SOUTHERN NEGROS AIRPORT

The construction of another airport in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental is under way soon with additional national government funding to complete the more than PHP1-billion project.

Sixth District Provincial Board Member Jeffrey Tubola, a former city councilor, said on Tuesday the Department of Transportation (DOTr) has proposed the inclusion of PHP855 million in the 2023 na tional budget for the completion of the project, including the passen

ger terminal.

“Light planes can now land there with the construction of the 1.32-kilometer runway,” Tubola said over the Provincial Capitol’s Radyo Negrense.

The development of the air port, situated on a 104-hectare lot in Barangay Hilamonan, be gan in 2007.

Previously, the DOTr allocated PHP90 million for the airport pro ject aside from the PHP120 million budget by the city government and

the PHP30 million financial assis tance from the provincial govern ment.

“Kabankalan is a progressive city, it’s in the center of Negros Is land which is a strategic location,” Tubola said.

It is a border city of Negros Oc cidental in the south alongside Ma binay town in Negros Oriental.

“The Dumaguete City airport is a bit far while the Bacolod airport has already transferred to Silay City,” Tubola said.

Asiamoney names URC the Philippines’ most outstanding consumer staples company

One of Asia’s leading finan cial publications has, for a second year in a row, named Universal Robina Corp. (URC) as the Philippines’ most out standing company in the consum er staples sector.

Asiamoney handed the award to URC, one of the Philippines’ largest food manufacturers, af ter an exhaustive survey of the region’s top capital movers and financial experts.

URC won the same award last year.

“This award affirms the high, consistent quality of our products and services, the trust and faith of our customers and the grit and resilience of our workforce,” said URC president and CEO Irwin Lee.

Asiamoney is a top source of news, commentaries and data services for international capital markets.

Its latest survey covered over 1,000 fund managers, analysts, bankers and ratings agencies. In total, 5,787 votes were received for publicly listed companies across 13 markets in Asia.

The results recognized 191 com panies as being the most outstand ing in their respective sectors and markets.

The poll was designed to ac knowledge listed firms that have excelled in areas such as financial performance, management team excellence, investor relations and

corporate social responsibility.

“While we are humbled by the recognition from the various fund managers, analysts, bankers and ratings agencies who took part in the voting, we would like to ac knowledge the efforts of all our stakeholders - employees, sup pliers, customers, and consumers - who have helped us persevere through the last two years of the pandemic,” said Lee.

“The company will continue to

work diligently to become the lead ing food and beverage sustainable enterprise from the Philippines,” he added. “We’re building new legs and entering new spaces with inno vation as our growth engine.”

Lee said with the Covid-19 pan demic now receding in the back ground, “URC enters this new chapter with gratitude, knowledge and a newfound vigor to sprint to ward our vision for a sustainable future”.

Universal Robina Corporation (URC), makers of longstanding well-loved Pinoy brands such C2, Great Taste, Piattos, Maxx Candy and Cream O, was named by Asiamoney as the Philippines’ most outstanding company in the con sumer staples sector, for the 2nd year in a row.

PROJECTS IN PEZA ZONES EYED

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has part nered with the Upgrade En ergy Philippines, Inc. (UGEP) to de velop solar energy projects within economic zones.

In a statement, the investment promotion agency said PEZA of ficer-in-charge Tereso Panga and UGEP president and chief execu tive officer Ruth Yu-Owen signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) last Sept. 22 to put up solar energy projects inside PEZA zones.

“PEZA welcomes partnerships

like this which promote the goal of environment-friendly industrializa tion,” Panga said.

The first phase of the partner ship involves the conduct of fea sibility studies in Cavite Economic Zone (CEZ) and Baguio City Eco nomic Zones (BCEZ) to determine the viability of putting up solar pro jects in these ecozones.

This, as UGEP aims to build a 10-megawatt solar project for CEZ and BCEZ to generate and sell so lar power to the end consumers through the distribution utilities in

side the ecozones.

On the other hand, PEZA will be providing necessary assistance to UGEP for the conduct of the stud ies, identification of land for the solar projects, and the registration of its projects under PEZA pursu ant to the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Law and the Renewable Energy Act of 2008.

“Promoting the use of renewa ble energy is extremely paramount in our country so we can save bil lions of pesos ,” Panga added.

Operators of Japan Expressway Visits Road Mountain Tunnel Project in Davao City

Major Japanese expressway players visited the Davao City Bypass Road Con struction Project in southern Philip pines in line with the cooperation program between the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) to share the wealth of engineering expertise and technology on the construc tion, operation and maintenance of road tunnels and expressways.

Together with DPWH Senior Un dersecretary Emil K. Sadain; Assis tant Secretary Constante A. Llanes Jr.; MLIT Deputy Director General Homare Kubota and Consul Gen eral of Japan in Davao Ishikawa Yoshihisa; Project Directors Ben jamin A. Bautista and Rodrigo I. Delos Reyes of DPWH Unified Pro ject Management Office (UPMO) Operations; and DPWH Region 11 OIC Assistant Director Joselito B. Caballero, the representatives of six (6) Japanese expressway firms toured on October 5, 2022 the north portal of the on-going tunnel project which is the centerpiece of Contract Package 1-1 of Davao City Bypass Construction Project.

The expressway companies are Central Nippon Expressway Co. Ltd., East Nippon Expressway Co. Ltd., West Nippon Expressway Co. Ltd., Metropolitan Expressway Company Ltd., Hanshin Express way Company Ltd., Honshu-Shi koku Bridge Expressway Company Ltd., and Japan Expressway Inter national Company Ltd. including Philippine construction firm Prime Metro BMD Inc. and MGS Con struction Inc.

According to Senior Undersec retary Sadain, the observation visit is a follow through activity to the workshop in Manila which pave the way for productive discussions and good interactions between leaders of Filipino and Japanese compa nies engaged in expressway and road tunnel projects for possible future business collaboration.

The Davao City Bypass Con struction Project is setting unprec edented standards for twin tube road mountain tunnel construction.

When completed, the road mountain tunnel project will be the

longest in the Philippines at 2.3 kilometers.

Another project in the pipeline in northern Luzon is the Dalton Bypass East alignment which has a tunnel component and with the loan nego tiation expected to start soon.

The workshop, which is covered by a Memorandum of Coopera tion signed on October 4, 2022 by DPWH Secretary Manuel M. Bono an and MLIT Minister Tetsuo Saito gives a more leverage on how the Philippines can improve and en hance technology by adopting the state of the art technologies of Ja pan especially on projects like tun neling, expressway, and even long inter-island bridges, said Senior Undersecretary Sadain.

The 45.5-kilometer Davao City Bypass Construction Project is divided into six (6) contract pack ages (CP) with the on-going CP 1-1 awarded to the joint venture con tractor Shimizu–Ulticon-Takenaka.

The construction of the road tunnel involves excavation of tun nel portal areas using the conven tional “New Austrian Tunneling Method”, mucking or removal of soil from tunnel interior, initial shot crete to protect from risk of fall materials and to prevent loosening during shotcrete application, steel ribs installation to provide effective structural protection, second shot crete with wire mesh to secure sta bility, and rock bolt installation to provide bearing force and become a part of tunnel support system.

The completed tunneling has an

average length of 200 meters for the northbound and southbound direction both at the north and south portal.

An excavation of three (3) to (4) meters are accomplished per day on each portal directions using specialized equipment such as drill jumbo, concrete spraying machine and articulated dump hauler to ex cavate tunnel that has a diameter of 10 meters.

The Davao City ByPass Road Construction Project is being im plemented by DPWH Unified Pro ject Management Office - Roads Management Cluster 1 (Bilateral) headed by Project Director Bau tista with Project Manager Joselito B. Reyes as project in-charge.

In addition to the tunnel, the contract package involves con struction of four (4)-lane road with a length of 7.9 kilometers; three (3) pairs of bridges with total length of 500 meters including the Davao River Bridge; two (2) underpasses and two (2) overpasses; 12 wa terways culverts; and four (4) atgrade intersection.

The on-going Contract Package 1-1 costing 13.23 Billion is financed by Special Terms for Economic Partnership (STEP) Loan between Philippines and Japan Internation al Cooperation Agency under loan agreement numbers PH-P261 and PH-P273.

Japan-supported big-ticket pro jects have played a crucial role in shaping and bolstering the Philip pine infrastructure landscape.

JRC: How a real estate worker became a leading visa consultant

By Steve Howe

JRC

a visa

out of Cebu City and has seven offices currently around the central and eastern Visayas.

We caught up with the founder and owner JR Coca in his head office in Cebu City, reflecting on the past few years and what lies ahead in an emerging economy, and the return of overseas nationals after the pandemic closed much of the country, and how things will look for them now.

I asked JR just how the company came to be and why.

“For some 17 years, I worked in the real estate market mostly from my onedesk corner office at home. It was very tiring processing paperwork title deeds and all the associated work and could take months and years to be settled,” he said.

“I came to realize that doing the vi sas and associated was a process that took weeks and at most a few months to complete, and not many people were doing it. The complicated system for foreigners was a lot more straightfor ward for me, so I thought, why not, it was a service that was badly needed, and we can do it better.”

“So, since 2017, we have been grow ing, and acquiring new clients, the transition from real estate was not that hard, as the documentation is just a set format. It was more about getting the right staff working with us, who will understand the amount of legwork in volved.”

Working out of a small office, JR says there has been a steady growth of staff and offices, from 2 offices and 4 staff to over 30 staff now spread around Cebu, Molboal, Panglao in Bohol and in Davao, and an office being set up in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental.

“A Manila office is needed, as most of the approval is centralized there, so you need staff there who are accred

ited to process there,” JR said.

“We offer the full range of visa ser vices for those wanting to visit, and those already here who need all the of ficial paperwork to live, stay, and marry here, as well as those wanting to work here.”

“We work with all the key elements needed, from legal to financial, and have our own in-house attorney and ac countants ready to service our clients.”

The re-opening of borders and the returning tourists and residents will make them need to know the current rules and regulations, and JRC will up date them as soon as they are changed.

“Information is key, as it can be a very stressful process and can be costly as well. We will ensure that all our cli ents will get the correct information at the time,” he added.

“We have at our core the need to work in our communities, and that our staff are always treated well and kept up to date with all the needs and chang es so we can support them all through the difficult times during and since COVID,” he said.

“Our future is set in the contact with the overseas market, to be able to con tact them via our social media and re lated networks, and that our staff are ready to meet the needs, both here and overseas,” JR said.

As for himself, “I am set in my ways to see that the company grows I make sure that all my staff are involved and happy. For me, I prioritize my family time, with my wife working alongside me to give a great future for my family going forward.”

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