Manila delays mining investment target amid turmoil
MANILA, Oct 13 (Reuters) - The Philippines has pushed back its target of attracting $10 billion in investments into the mining sector by a year to 2012, with some companies struggling to raise funds, a senior official said on Monday.
Horacio Ramos, director of the mines and geosciences bureau, said the government is also unsure whether it will meet its goal of drawing $1 billion in mining investments this year.
Ramos said mining companies, particularly the smaller ones which raise funds for exploration through the stock market, have difficulty raising money because their share prices have slumped amid the turmoil in global financial markets.
"So the junior companies might have to slow down and we're looking at the overall impact on our target. Our projection is it will be delayed by at least a year," Ramos told reporters.
The Philippines, which sits atop an estimated $1 trillion worth of unexplored copper, gold, nickel and zinc reserves, was earlier hoping to attract $10 billion in investments into the local mining sector by 2011.
Around $1.8 billion has flowed into the industry since 2004 when the Philippine Supreme Court allowed foreign companies 100 percent ownership in local mining ventures.
Mining investments had reached just more than $300 million in the first half of 2008, about a third of the full-year goal.
Asked whether the government is still optimistic investments this year will reach $1 billion, Ramos said: "We're not sure."
Apart from the global financial crisis, mining companies in the Philippines also have to contend with legal uncertainties and opposition from the Catholic Church, making it difficult for them to do business in the Southeast Asian nation.
The world's No. 1 mining company, BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) (BLT.L), which has committed to spend around $1 billion in a nickel project in the souther Mindanao region, has been locked in a long-running dispute with its local partner. (Reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr.; Editing by Michael Urquhart)
