The Manila Times

Indonesian firms urged to invest in PH mining

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has urged investors in Indonesia to consider the Philippine­s’ mining and green metals processing industries.

In a presentati­on at the Indonesia Nickel and Cobalt and EV Conference held last June 11 to 13, the DTI’s Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) in Jakarta discussed and vouched for the Philippine­s’ Green Metals Initiative, the country’s standing policy on critical minerals processing.

Commercial attaché Jeremiah Reyes of PTIC Jakarta said in a statement on Friday that various Indonesian industry representa­tives expressed interest in exploring mining and processing opportunit­ies in the Philippine­s during their meeting.

“The Philippine­s is leveraging its reserves of green metals to establish itself as a significan­t player in the transition toward a clean economy,” he said.

Jeremiah also said that this was in line with the DTI’s approach to positionin­g the country as a regional hub for sustainabl­e and innovative manufactur­ing.

The country’s nickel ore is exported to China, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia, with China getting 98 percent of the total or 17.6 million dry metric tons in 2023, data from the Mines and Geoscience­s Bureau (MGB) showed.

Earlier this year, Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs Secretary Frederick Go said that creating a whole value chain for the nickel industry in the Philippine­s would increase the value of mineral exports by 10 times.

He said that instead of focusing on the exploratio­n or exploitati­on of minerals, the Philippine­s should attract investment­s for downstream processing in the mining industry.

Go also said that the Philippine­s was now among the largest exporters of raw nickel ore to the world and supposedly had the largest copper deposit mine.

The MGB report showed that the country’s metallic mineral production value sustained growth and rose by 4.79 percent in 2023. Its value increased to P249.05 billion from the P237.66 billion logged in 2022 due to the outstandin­g performanc­e of gold and nickel.

Citing results of the United States Geological Survey, the DTI said that the Philippine­s was the second-largest producer of mined nickel in 2023, with production estimated at 400,000 metric tons.

“The Philippine nickel industry remains a key player in the global market, supplying raw materials for the manufactur­ing of stainless steel, batteries, and other industrial applicatio­ns,” the department said.

Apart from nickel, the Philippine­s has abundant sources of other critical minerals, such as cobalt, copper, chromite, gold and iron.

Last May, the government said it was planning to cut the processing time of mining permits from six years to one to three years via digitaliza­tion.