Mining And Extractive Industries

Mozambique's EITI application rejected

Maputo, Mozambique, 29 Aug – Mozambique’s application to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has been rejected, the EITI said in a statement, adding that Mozambique could put forward another proposal within a maximum of 18 months.

The application was rejected due to Mozambique not having met the necessary criteria, specifically the lack of an updated working plan, a lack of involvement of civil society and publication of payments made by the companies and respective cross-referencing with State revenues.

Mozambique made its application to the EITI international secretariat in May 2009 and handed in its report on the extractive industry in the country in February 2011.

“The secretariat decided that, despite all the efforts made, Mozambique can not be considered to be a compliant country, but rather a country with significant progress made in the implementation of the EITI,” the EITI statement said.

EITI’s refusal to grant the status of “compliant country” took into account the need for the government to follow international standards in “auditing revenues from mining resources, as well as a clear definition of relevant payments and receipts.”

The participation of all parties that make or receive payments in the sector is also essential for Mozambique to be considered transparent in terms of the extractive industry, the EITI international secretariat said.

The document pointed out the areas of oil, gas and mining as requiring further information in the report included in Mozambique’s application.

After rejection of the first report, the statement said, Mozambique can put forward a second application this year or within a maximum of 18 months, by 15 February, 2013. (macauhub)

Lisbon, Portugal, 29 Aug – Mozambique will continue to grow at a rate above the average for sub-Saharan Africa over the next few years, with construction, cement production and mining increasing their weighting within the economy, according to Portuguese bank BPI.

Spratlys's future and mining's dark present : The Philippine Reporter ...

TORONTO – The contested Spratlys with its reported rich deposits of oil and gas reserves underneath the sea. The raging question of who exactly owns it. The hysteria brought about by an imagined invasion by a mighty state, implying the intervention of another. The claim that acquiring Spratlys, with its rich natural resources, could alleviate Philippine poverty. These are the issues that have made such a hot topic out of the Spratlys, now resurrected all of a sudden, 40 years after the Spratlys became a top news item in the Philippines.

As a result, in Toronto, following a call from a the U.S.-base group of Filpinos, people are already taking action on these issues, as when Filipinos recently picketed the Toronto Chinese Consulate and organized prayer rallies in churches.

Meanwhile, the Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ), in collaboration with the Philippine Press Club-Ontario, and Kamalayan, sponsored a forum to discuss the Spratlys in relation to the Philippine extractive industries and sovereignty. Titled, “China vs. the Philippines: The Spratlys Issue and Philippine Natural Wealth” the forum was held at an OISE classroom last August 19. It was attended by almost 60 people that included students, representatives of various organizations, the Consul General of Toronto Pedro Chan, and former Consul General Clemencio Montesa.

Organizers believed the Spratlys topic could only be best understood and appreciated in learning where the Philippines currently stands in its fight for what it claims as its own, amidst the claims of the five other countries. The organizers also believed the Spratlys issue was relevant as it relates to the natural resources of gas and oil it reportedly holds.

Would those resources go the same way current natural wealth in the Philippines – such as forests and minerals — are extracted and exploited? How would the Philippine claim lead to the advancement of national sovereignty, economic gains, and the alleviation of people’s poverty? These were some of the questions that the forum aimed to discuss.

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