www.ferro-alloys.com: Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP), which is composed of the country’s biggest miners, will contest the order of Environment Secretary Gina Lopez to impose additional trust fund for suspended mining companies.

There is now a call for Lopez to release the guidelines of her memorandum order requiring suspended mining companies to have an additional trust fund of R2 million per hectare before they could be allowed to remove their stockpiles.

The trust fund is separate from the existing rehabilitation trust fund that is required of mining firms under Article 71 of the Republic Act 7942 and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Administrative Order 2010-10.

Under the Philippine Mining Act, Mine Rehabilitation Fund (MRF) shall be deposited as a trust fund in a government depository bank and shall be used for physical and social rehabilitation of areas and communities affected by mining activities and for research on the social, technical, and preventive aspects of rehabilitation.

Miners should also allot separate fund for Social Development Management Program, which is a comprehensive five-year plan that ensures there is a sustained improvement in the living standards of the mining host and neighboring communities.

COMP and other miners have questioned the order for being redundant as RA 7942 and DENR AO 2010-10 already sets up trust funds.

“We will contest that. The DENR should cite the law that requires companies to put that up because that is contrary to the previously imposed implementing rules and regulations under the law,” Nelia Halcon, COMP executive vice president, said in a press conference on Wednesday.

“Why should they impose that much when you already have rehabilitation funds? We have to meet [as an industry] and plan what to do next. We have to look at the possible legal options,” she added.

Halcon said that Lopez must know the law and that she “should know what they’re doing.”

• [Editor:Licaixia]