www.ferro-alloys.com: A total of 75 philippine mining companies are now at risk of losing their Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSA) it earlier got from the government, while the environmental permit of Southeast Asia’s largest undeveloped copper-gold mining project, which is located in South Cotobato, has already been cancelled.

This, as the crusade of Environmental Secretary Gina Lopez against the destructive operations in the mining sector continues without letup.

Amid criticism on her recent decisions, which involves issuing closure and suspension orders to 28 mines, Lopez still proceeded to cancel more mining contracts yesterday.

This time, she cancelled as much as 75 MPSAs as well as the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) of the Tampakan copper-gold mining project.

MPSA are mineral agreement wherein government gets a share in the production of the mining company, whether in kind or in value, as owner of the minerals.

In return, the mining contractor shall provide the necessary financing, technology, management and personnel for the mining project.

Based on Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), there are currently 311 existing MPSAs right now, of which only 96 are operational.

“We don’t want more MPSA (given to mining operations) near watershed,” Lopez said in an interview with reporters. “The MPSAs that are to be cancelled are not yet operational. We are going to cancel it even before they start operating. No one will lose their jobs.”

“We are putting at risk the food basket of Mindanao for something that we might not even get,” Lopez said. “We are cancelling it as a gift of love for the people of Cotobato”.

Asked of the possible foregone investments in the mining sector, Lopez said “if they (foreign investors) want to invest and rape the country, I prefer that they go away”.

“They are going to invest here and then 82 percent of the net revenue goes to them and then 95 percent of that 82 percent goes out of the local economy, and then they create massive devastation here, then they should just go somewhere else,” Lopez said.

For its part, Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP), which comprised some of the country’s biggest miners, said the cancellation of MPSAs only shows the utter lack of regard for due process by the DENR.

• [Editor:Licaixia]