WWW.FERRO-ALLOYS.COM: In the middle of the ongoing dispute over the closure of 23 mines and the cancellation of 75 mining permits by Secretary Gina Lopez of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands (CCPI), the oldest business organization in the country, has come up with a proposal that merits the closest government attention.

The Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands has now raised a point that has not been considered all this time – that the country should start moving to a higher level of the mining industry. We should not just export raw ore from our earth; we should start processing this ore in plants in our own land .

We should be exporting iron, rather than iron ore; copper, nickel, and other metals produced from ore which we now simply ship out in bulk to other countries which do the processing. We would be employing many thousands more employees than the 1.2 million now extracting the raw ore from the bowels of our earth. This will be adding value to our product, increasing the income we now get from our mines.

The chamber pointed out that this will require amendment of the Mining Ac of 1985. Whatever it takes, it is time to take up the idea of processing our own raw materials. Just as so many foreign companies were drawn by opportunities of extracting the many rich ores from our land, many other companies will see the great opportunities in processing these same raw materials into even more valuable metal exports. It is to these companies that the Philippine government must start granting licenses, the CCPI said.

• [Editor:Licaixia]