“Philippine environment minister doubles down on mining crackdown”, 14 February 2017

The Philippines' environment minister stepped up a crackdown on mining…cancelling almost a third of the country's contracts for undeveloped mines and rejecting any challenges to earlier orders to shut over half of all operating pits…

The latest 75 contracts, which cover projects in the exploration stage or otherwise not yet in production, are all in watershed zones and would threaten water supply if they went ahead, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Regina Lopez said…

The contracts canceled…known as mineral production sharing agreements (MPSAs), include the $1.2 billion copper-gold project of Philex Mining Corp, one of the country's biggest miners, in southern Philippines.

Also scrapped was the permit for the $5.9 billion Tampakan copper-gold project in South Cotabato province in Mindanao island, the biggest stalled mining venture in the Southeast Asian country…