President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo witnessed on Monday the signing of an agreement on the Chinese investment of 4 million U.S. dollars into a chromite-rich mining area at Dinagat island in Surigao del Norte for a period of 10 years, renewable for another 25 years.

This is the first mining investment that came into the country after the supreme court liberalized the mining sector by lifting the ban on foreign participation into mining projects.

The Philippines' Dinagat Island Cooperative represented by its president Benglen Ecleo signed the agreement with Oriental Synergy Mining Corp. and the Macao Quanta Mining Co. Ltd. of China's Special Administrative Region of Macao, represented by chairman of the board Jiang Jie Ying and chairman Zhang Tiang Ming, respectively.

Macao Quanta will provide the finances for the project as well as access to markets abroad while Oriental will manage, develop and supervise the mining operations.

The project area covers 648 hectares on Dinagat island. The agreement contains provisions on environmental protection and means to help the communities nearby.

Source: Xinhua