The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines elected former Press secretary and lawyer Michael Toledo as its next chair, replacing Nickel Asia Corp. chairman Gerard Brimo who had been at the helm of COMP since 2017.
Brimo remains in the board of trustees and assumes the post of vice-chair alongside Gloria Tan-Climaco, chairwoman of Filminera Resources Corp.
Toledo heads the government and public affairs group of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and is the chief operating officer of Silangan Mindanao Mining Co. He will steer COMP as the nation prepares to elect a new administration that the mining industry hopes will continue to promote business stability and investor confidence.
Brimo helped COMP, an association of the biggest large-scale mining companies in the country, navigate through a challenging regulatory environment. He saw the government’s lifting of a nine-year moratorium on new mining permits and continues to advocate for the lifting of a ban on open pit mining.
Under his stewardship, COMP became the first mining association in Asia to adopt the Towards Sustainable Mining program developed by the Mining Association of Canada. TSM is rapidly becoming a global environment, social and governance standard for mining and was adopted by 10 national mining associations, including more recently the Minerals Council of Australia.
Brimo, Tan-Climaco and Philex Mining Corp. president and chief executive Eulalio Austin will remain as ex-officio members of the TSM advisory panel to provide industry perspectives during deliberations in the 15-person multi-stakeholder policy-making body.
Austin remains a COMP trustee, together with Joan Adaci-Cattiling, OceanaGold Phils. Inc president; Dante Bravo, Platinum Group Metals Corp. president; Antonio Co, Carrascal Nickel Corp. president; Isidro Consunji, Berong Nickel Corp. chairman and chief executive; Masahiro Kamiya, Sumitomo Metal Mining Phils. Holdings Corp. chairman and president; Joaquin Lagonera, Sagittarius Mines Inc. president; Yulo Perez, TVI Resource Dev’t Phils., Inc. president; Adrian Ramos, Atlas Consolidated Mining & Dev’t Corp. president; Horacio Ramos, Pacific Nickel Phils. Inc. president; Bryan Yap, Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. president and chief executive; and Martin Antonio Zamora, president and chief executive of Nickel Asia Corp. and subsidiaries.
