Monday, January 31, 2011

DENR sets Feb. 20 deadline for approval of mining projects

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) gave its local regional offices a deadline to act upon the 2,180 mining tenements applications that have been pending for over a decade.

DENR Secretary Ramon Pace said today that all regional directors of the Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau should either approve or disapprove half of their pending and inactive mining applications by Feb. 20. The rest should be done by the end of this year.

"We have to decide once and for all on what to do with all of these mining applications long pending in our regional offices, otherwise the public will continue to perceive us as inefficient and corrupt," Paje said.

Mining tenements include mineral production sharing agreement, exploration permit and financial and technical assistance agreement.

The Philippines is among countries having the largest gold, nickel, copper and chromite deposits in the world.

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