Prolonged Mine Review Takes Heavy Toll on Nickel Market

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Philippines Mining Council has further extended the deadline for completion of review of mines announced earlier. The decision is likely to impact ore supplies from the country, which in turn may have significant influence on the global nickel market.

According to recent statement issued by the Philippines Department of Finance, the Mining Industry Coordinating Council will now take six months for the review to get completed, instead of the earlier announced time period of three months. The initial phase, which covers legal, technical and environmental aspects, is likely to take three months. The second phase, which will cover the social and economic aspects, will also take three months, the Department statement said.

Meantime, the appeals by miners against the shutdowns are being reviewed by the Environment Department and the President’s office. Environment Undersecretary Jonas Leones stated that all administrative and judicial remedies will be given due consideration before a final order is issued on the matter.

Earlier in June 2016, the then Head of the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR) had audited the country’s mines and had ordered to shut or suspend operations at 26 of them due to environmental concerns. The Department had also imposed a country-wide ban on all prospective open-pit mining projects. Despite ban, Philippines managed to remain as the world’s largest nickel producer in 2016, with an output of approximately 500,000 tonnes, closely followed by Russia (256,000 tonnes) and Canada (255,000 tonnes).

The nickel ore shipments from Philippines dropped by almost a third in 2017. The recent data published by Chinese Customs officials indicates that nickel ore shipments by Philippines to the country witnessed notable decline from 30.6 million metric tonnes in 2016 to 29.1 million tons in 2017.