Mining decisions

[RBM]

When living in Cebu some years ago our group (green trail riders) often rode around Atlas mining  site. One only has to view the intensity of the environmental damage to understand the situation. Guess this is minor compared to some sites. Problem is up until now there has been next to no control over the environment. Now along comes a big stick that works. Of course environmental  sustainable mining would be great. In this culture or mentality I just not able to  see it happening.

[Jack Peterson]

Saw Plenty of environmental devastation with the Coal Mines of the UK. Wouldn't be so bad if the Went Deep Shaft instead of Open cast. But............... Can you imagine?

[Dave Hounddriver]

mining for fish with dynamite comes to mind.  This is the mentality of people who are expected to preserve the environment around a nickel mine?  

[earthdome]

Call me cynical but this just sounds like a shakedown of the mining industry. Similar to when the US Congress initiated anti-trust investigation of Microsoft over 15 years ago. Up to that point MS did not have a single Washington lobbyist or make political contributions. Now they spend millions of dollars a year playing the politicians game.

[mogo51]

23 hours ago, jpbago said:

I imagine that the obligations are there but like other laws here, there is no enforcement. There is too much acceptance of "this is the Philippines and that is how it is".

Yes I understand the problem but this is the type of thing that DU30 is trying to change.  But whether he actually wants the mining to continue seems somewhat confusing at this point.  For the good of the country, I hope it does.

[mogo51]

4 minutes ago, earthdome said:

Call me cynical but this just sounds like a shakedown of the mining industry. Similar to when the US Congress initiated anti-trust investigation of Microsoft over 15 years ago. Up to that point MS did not have a single Washington lobbyist or make political contributions. Now they spend millions of dollars a year playing the politicians game.

May or may not be the case eathdome, time will tell of course.  So far DU30 seems quite upfront with what he is trying to do and many corrupt officials have fallen by the roadside.  No reason why this cannot go the same way.  It would be good revenue for the country that is much needed.

As they say 'hope springs eternal'

[Jake]

29 minutes ago, mogo51 said:

May or may not be the case eathdome, time will tell of course.  So far DU30 seems quite upfront with what he is trying to do and many corrupt officials have fallen by the roadside.  No reason why this cannot go the same way.  It would be good revenue for the country that is much needed.

As they say 'hope springs eternal'

I'm with ya Mogo.  I think there is genuine hope that DU30 will keep his campaign promises.  One of them of course is draining the swamp of all the old political alligators.  All the govt departments or agencies like PNP, BI, CUSTOMS, MINING, etc.....certainly have the old guard of the well entrenched corruption machine.

The most valuable natural resources that Philippines export on a global scale are the OFW's. Unfortunately, that agency needs to be cleaned up as well.  

 

[Balisidar]

On 2/7/2017 at 4:06 PM, mogo51 said:

Thank you Reboot.  But the silly part of the decision by Philippines to claw back mining is that they have just transferred the money from Philippines to Indonesia who has just re opened their mines the closed on 'environmental reasons'.  The loss of income was massive.

The answer is to ensure safe mining practices and oversee that those measures are being kept up to date.  Then it is a win/win.

I am sure the poor bastards who are struggling from day to day to keep a roof over their head and food in their and childrens' mouths could be well use it.

I also agree with you about tourism in Philippines.  My SO and I did a trip up and down Luzon a couple of years ago and the potential is unbelievable but the infra structure is lagging so far behind.  Philippines needs to get its hands on as much capital that it can to break the 'poverty shackles'

When my wife and I visited Puerto Galera, Mindoro on our last trip in January I was fairly impressed on how clean things were there and how tourists were generally treated.  They had just gone through a typhoons but quickly cleaned things up.  If the rest of the areas in the Philippines put more money and effort into making things more attractive then the income potential could me massive.  We loved Mindoro  

Edited February 14, 2017 by Balisidar

[mogo51]

Yes Jake, my SO is forever getting jerked around by them and I do not believe they are given the accolades they deserve, they bring in a lot of money to the Philippines.  DU30 seems to be a bit more receptive towards them though.