Mining 45, Presentation at UP Diliman

Last September 22,2015 evening, I was one of two speakers in a symposium, "OPEN MINEded ka ba?" organized by the University of the Philippines (UP) Mining Engineering Society (UP Miners) and co-sponsored by about 10 other student organizations in UP. Venue was the College of Science Auditorium, UP Diliman, Quezon City.

The other speaker was Engr. Gabriel "Gab" Pamintuan Jr., an alumni and part-time faculty member of Mining Engineering in UP, with an MS in Petroleum Engineering in a US university, and currently pursuing a PhD in nuclear engineering.

Including those who come and go, there could be 100+ students who attended the forum. One young faculty member from the National Institute of Geological Sciences (UP NIGS) brought her entire class to the forum. She later asked for my presentation and that of Gab, to be among her resource materials in her presentation at a forum abroad this month.

Among the slides I showed, below. If the direct and indirect payments are summed up, the local communities really benefit from sustainable, long-term, scientific and corporate large-scale mining. Workers and their kids who have free or subsidized housing, free private hospitalization, private school, roads and street lighting, etc. Then the non-employees who have shops, carinderias, vendors who cater to the needs of officers and employees. Not to mention the various taxes, fees, royalties, paid to local and national government units.  My 23-slides presentation is posted in slideshare here.

Still, many people hate mining, especially corporate mining without understanding,  or refusing to understand that a lot of bad and negative images of mining destruction come from "small scale", short-term, guerilla type of mining. Gab Pamintuan's presentation with lots of photos was truly an  eye-opener.

With members of UP Miners. Thanks again, Neil Clark, for the invite. This is the 2nd time that I spoke at UP Miners' forum, the 1st time was last year, held at the UPSE auditorium.

There were also participants from Adamson University, geology students, below. They traveled from Manila to UP in Quezon City to hear the discussion.

Thanks again for the opportunity to discuss the ugly realities of government's heavy taxation, regulations and bureaucratism of this otherwise very useful industry. If people do not believe that mining is useful, try NOT using any products of mining -- tv and ref, cars and buses, spoon and fork, electricity and electronic gadgets like cell phones and computers,...
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See also:

Mining 41: Presentation at the UP MINERS Forum, September 21, 2014

Mining 42: Presentation and Debate at UP PALS-NCPAG, November 14, 2014

Mining 43: Mandy Armas, Christian Monsod at the PES Conference, December 01, 2014 

Mining 44, Presentation at the Mining 2015 Conference, September 17, 2015 

BWorld 19, Taxation and regulations in PH mining industry, September 24, 2015