The Philippines expects investors to pour $348 million into 24 mining projects this year after a dismal 2006 when local opposition to foreign miners helped cut investments to $109 million.

“We are really headed for a take-off this year and we foresee a mining boom setting in in 2008,” Environment and Natural Resources secretary Angelo Reyes said on Saturday.

The Philippines claims to have $1 trillion worth of unexplored mineral wealth and attracted $447 million in mining investments in 2005 after the Supreme Court gave the green light to 100 percent foreign ownership in local projects.

But the government’s campaign to attract at least $6.5 billion for 24 projects was tripped up by cyanide leaks in a copper and gold mine of Australia’s Lafayette Mining Ltd. , which triggered a storm of controversy in late-2005 and 2006.

Influential Catholic bishops and environmental groups protested and the government rowed back from active promotion.

Reyes said companies in 2006 were focused more on exploration and feasibility studies and this year would be a major construction period.

Lafayette may be allowed to reopen its Rapu Rapu mine on Feb. 5, more than a year after its closure, a government official had said.

Reyes said that gross output from the Philippine mining sector, once one of the biggest in the world, rose 48 percent last year to 55 billion pesos ($1.13 billion).

“The contribution of the mining sector to gross domestic product is improving steadily,” he said.

The Philippines ranks in the world’s top five for its deposits of copper, nickel and iron but its mining sector fell into decline due to decades of neglect, environmental mishaps and clashes over land ownership.

But rising mineral prices, largely due to demand from resource-hungry China, have helped propel production in the Southeast Asian country.

Last year’s gross production of gold and silver rose 23 percent, while nickel and copper saw increases of 159 percent and 78 percent respectively.

source news : asia.news.yahoo.com

Find More Mining News :