MANILA -- Australia's Climax Mining has won a major legal challenge which has held up a copper-gold mining project in the Philippines for more than 12 years, court officials said yesterday.

The high court dismissed a suit by a non-government organization seeking to stop Climax-Arimco Mining Corp. and the environment and natural resources department from proceeding with the Didipio project, according to the court ruling released to the press yesterday. The NGO, called the Didipio-Earth Savers' Multi-Purpose Association Inc. had asked the court to compel the government to repeal the 1995 Mining Act and declare the department's financial and technical assistance agreement with Arimco illegal.

The court instead ruled there was no basis for the contention that the mining law failed to provide just compensation for privately-owned properties encompassed by the 23,895-hectare project site in the northern province of Nueva Vizcaya.

It said the authority of the government to enter into FTAA agreements with foreign companies which would then manage the mine was already established by a prior Supreme Court ruling in 1997 that upheld the constitutionality of the Mining Law.

The Didipio project was first launched in 1994 but it has not gone past the exploration stage due to the legal challenges.

President Gloria Arroyo earlier this year sought to reassure nervous businessmen in the Philippines that their investments in the resources sector were safe amid an anti-mining campaign by Roman Catholic church leaders.

Arroyo is pinning her hopes on the recent revival of the industry, which expects 2006 turnover of about five billion dollars after being in the doldrums for two decades, to bring jobs and make a dent in widespread poverty.

The government is aiming for $1.5 billion in new mining investments this year and $6.5 billion over the next five years.*AFP

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