Miners gather for International Mining Confab this week

MANILA, Philippines - Mining companies will gather this week to discuss critical issues in the largest annual conference and exhibition for the local extractive industry to be held at the Solaire Resort and Casino in Manila.

This year’s International Mining Conference hosted by the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) is slated from Sept. 15 to 17.

Opening the exhibition are COMP president Philip Romualdez, joined by Surigao del Norte governor Sol Matugas. On the first afternoon of the three-day conference, two focus group discussions—“ Mining Matters: Unaccounted Benefits of Mining Operations” and “Mining Taxation: Analyzing Asean Competitiveness” will be conducted.

On the second day, Sept. 16, Vice President Jejomar Binay will deliver the keynote address during the formal opening of the conference.  He will be joined by Rafaelita Aldaba, assistant secretary for Industry Development of the Department of Trade and Industry; and Magnus Ericsson, founder of the Raw Materials Group of Sweden.

Highlighting the conference is a discussion on  “What is Mining to Philippine Development? Can the Philippines become an Asia Factory?” in which the industry vision of helping economic transformation by way of industrialization would be examined.