Vice president of the state-run Philippine Mining Development Corp., said : “No Mining Companies submitted a bid for gold and copper mine exploration project”.

Philipines Government bidding for a potential gold and copper mine site on Mount Diwalwal in southern Philippines, but on Wednesday when no investor turned in an offer, a senior state official said.

Six foreign and local groups, including the Philippine unit of Britain’s Metals Exploration Plc prequalified to join the auction for the right to develop the 1,620-hectare mine site near the gold rush area on Mount Diwalwal that has attracted many small-scale miners.

“Nobody submitted a bid,” Jaime de Veyra, vice president of the state-run Philippine Mining Development Corp told Reuters.

The government has set a floor price of $1.5 million, representing the commitment fee for the first year of a 25-year contract to develop the Upper Ulip-Paraiso mine site.

The winner of the bid would also have to pay $1 million a year in additional commitment fees for the next four years, on top of a 5 percent royalty on its gross sales from the mine.

De Veyra said potential bidders may have found the fee too high with no available estimate on the site’s mineral reserves.

“It may also be due to the gloomy business situation that we’re in,” he said, referring to the global financial crisis.

The state agency, an arm of the Environment and Natural Resources department, may lower the commitment fee if it decides to hold another bidding, de Veyra said.

“But if the board decides that the business climate is not good at this time, we will defer the re-bidding,” he said.

Other groups prequalified to bid for the contract include the joint venture of China Sci-tech Holding Ltd and Songxian Fengyuan Molybdenum Industry Co and the partnership of Hangzhou Jiantong Group Co and local firm Mt Apo Mining Development Corp.

The rest were South Korea’s Junheung International Co Ltd and Philippine firms Mt Sinai Mining Exploration and Development Corp and Karanglan Resources and Mining Corp.

The Philippines sits atop an estimated $1 trillion worth of mineral wealth but only $1.7 billion has flowed in since 2004, when the Supreme Court cleared a law allowing foreigners to own 100 percent of large-scale mining projects.

Find More Mining News :