RI woos most mining investment in Asia

RI woos most mining investment in Asia

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Indonesia is the star of Asian mining while China and India need to overhaul their attitude towards foreign miners to attract the interest of potential investors, mining officials said yesterday.

The Philippines, after approving a popular new mining law last year, has also drawn a lot of exploration dollars recently and may become a top destination soon, officials attending an Asian Mining conference in Singapore said.

"I think Indonesia is the country that stands out in the region," Michael Nossal, associate director of Macquarie Corporate Finance Ltd of Australia, told delegates.

"Indonesia is probably ranked first in terms of mining investment in Asia," Geoff Cottrell, chairman of Coopers and Lybrand International Mining Group in Australia, added.

Indonesia earned high marks for mining agreements called Contract of Work (COW) that were clear-cut and stable.

Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand may also prove to be attractive areas for mining investment in the future, the mining officials said.

But delegates complained about the difficulty of getting agreement on mining ventures in China. India also came in for criticism, especially over its 25 square kilometer limit on the size of mining leases.

Cottrell said that while top officials in both nations supported the opening of the mining industry, bureaucrats at lower levels of government are proving to be formidable obstacles for a foreign mining company.

One U.S. delegate said a deal with a provincial government in China unraveled when the central authority in Beijing rejected the venture.

"I think the problem in China is doing a deal and I'm talking about gold in particular," the delegate said, adding it was "very, very difficult" to hammer out a binding mining agreement there.

Chinese officials who on Monday said they welcomed the influx of foreign mining companies, were not available to comment on the criticism during Tuesday's session.

The approval of a liberal mining law in the Philippines has revitalized the industry and Manila now ranks with Jakarta in its ability to attract millions of exploration dollars from Australia, the U.S., and Canada.

"The change in legislation should augur well for mining in the Philippines," Cottrell said.

Of the some 244 exploration and mining projects in the Asia- Pacific region conducted by mining companies from the U.S., Australia and Canada over the past year, the Philippines and Indonesia accounted for more than half, Nossal said.

But the public furor over the tonnes of waste spilt by Marcopper Mining Corp's copper mine, in the central island of Marinduque, may have cooled investor interest in the Philippines somewhat.

In March, mining waste from a tailings pond at Marcopper, owned 40 percent by Canada's Placer Dome, leaked into a local river after a technical failure.

"The incident over Marcopper has (led) to a falling off in sentiment lately," Nossal said.

"Some of the developments that occurred in Marcopper...created a fair degree of unease," Cottrell added.