The Provincial Mining Regulatory Board in Dumaguete City wants local government units in Negros Oriental to have a bigger participation in the application for large scale mining activities in their localities, provincial attorney Erwin Vergara said.

Under the law, Vergara said, applications for a large scale mining are submitted to the regional office of the Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau and will be decided by its national office.

The only participation of the province where the applied mining site is located, he added, is through the passage of a resolution endorsing the application.

He said the mining board, which is co-chaired by the provincial governor and the regional director of the MGB, with representatives from large and small scale miners and a non-governmental organization, agreed in its meeting last week that LGUus should be given the opportunity to scrutinize the applicants because, the locality where the activity is conducted will be the first to suffer in case of adverse effect of the mining.

He said these large scale applicants should be required by law to appear before officials of the locality so their capability and commitment can be determined, Vergara, who is representing Gov. Emilio Macias II in the PMRB, said.

Vergara also said small-scale mining applicants have also been prejudiced because they are prohibited from operating in areas included in the coverage applied for by their large scale counterparts, unless, they are the first to apply in the area they intend to mine.

Application for small scale mining, such as quarrying is decided by the provincial government.

Edith Amiscaray, Supervising Science Research Specialist of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office here, explained that a large scale mining covers at least 25 hectares, while areas allowed for small scale mining is below 25 hectares.

Vergara said that, during the meeting, the PMRB decided to request Congress to amend the law on mining, and empower the LGUs to participate in the decision-making whether to approve applications for large scale mining or not.

Vergara said the PMRB will also request Congress to protect small time mining applicants. He also said that, as of January 2008, three foreign companies have applied for large-scale mining of iron in the towns of Zamboanguita and Siaton.

He did not, however, name the applicants but said the area applied for is about 24,000 hectares.*RA

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