No new mining projects before law amended

Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino said on Wednesday that his administration will not allow any new mining projects until the Congress passes revisions on the mining act about revenue-sharing formula between government and mining companies. Aquino made the statement amid the pending appeal of the local unit of Xstrata PLC, a multinational mining company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, to grant the company the environmental compliance certificate for the $5.9-billion Tampakan gold and copper project in southern Philippine province of South Cotabato. "We still stick with our position that there has to be a reformulation of the governing law with regards to the mining industry. And we would rather not continue the situation or also the risks until the remedies or the corrections in the mining laws will be corrected," he said in his annual forum with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (Focap) on Wednesday. Aquino wants the government to get higher share of royalties from the mining projects, citing that when problems arise, it is the state that has to address them. "So subject to review, I think the safest position will be to await these new amendments to the (mining) law so that we don't grant something that we would be changing almost as soon we granted it," the President added.