Mining revenues (royalties) in the Philippines: How much? Who benefits?

Manila: Question: How much do the Filipino people, represented by the state, get from mining?

Answer: Nobody knows for sure.

Another question: How much does the country actually make each year from its mineral wealth?

Quick answer: It's as good as what the miners claim.

Facts first: In 2023, the total value of taxes, fees, and royalties from the mining industry in the Philippines reached approximately ₱44.84 billion (roughly $760 million at an exchange rate of ₱1 = 0.017), as per the law firm Chambers and Partners.

This reportedly peaked in 2022; though the exact figures for that year are not specified in the provided data.

Why?

It's a good question to ask.

There's no published or publicly-accessible table, or grid, showing the royalty amounts and excise taxes from mining, and what happened to them.

Let's backtrack a bit.

In 2017, the government reportedly collected ₱1.1 billion in royalties and ₱1.9 billion in excise taxes, primarily from operations within mineral reservations, as per the Department of Finance (DoF).

Notice that between the Chambers and Partners report (₱44.84 billion in 2022) vs DoF data (₱3 billion in 2017)?

What explain the huge gap? Some accounting snafu?

Here's a possible explanation: Continuous mining royalties/taxes data reflecting the previous or subsequent years, are absent from public sources.

Experts (geologists), mining firms and their lawyers love to point this out: only 2.6% (or 779,446.41 hectares) of the 9 million hectares identified mining areas in the Philippines has mining "tenements".

In theory, these millions of hectares of land are owned by the people. A mining tenement is a legal right granted by law (i.e. the government in behalf of the people) to a company or individual to explore for, extract, and use mineral resources from a specific area of land.

Which means: there's more mining and, potentially, royalties yet to come (if the tenement permits are presumably expanded).

But what happens then?

For all the gold, copper, silver and other critical minerals like nickel the Asian nation is endowed with, the Manila government says now — by its own admission — they've had enough of being taken for a ride.

How? By putting their foot down, and saying "Enough!" to mining firms who hide their profits.

Because, if mining in the Philippines is unprofitable, why do it at all, and for many decades? Itogon, the country's oldest active mine site, started open-pit and underground mining in the northern Luzon town in 1903 (i.e. it's 122 years old now).

If some things do not add up, it leaves a lot to guess work.

The devil is in the detail: When a mining firm reports no or little profit on paper, thanks to top-notch accounting that helps them take the most fat from the land, the people and the state get a pittance by way of royalties.

But doesn't the government have its own crack team of accounting super-sleuths and conscientious lawyers?

In this cat-and-mouse game, the gap lies in the legislation, i.e. a law that clearly defines who owns what, who gets how much, and how earnings are accounted for.

To plug this decades-old leak, a new law (Republic Act No. 12253, signed Thursday, September 4, 2025) now mandates audits and inspections of mining sales and exports, no less by multiple government agencies.

The aim: to close loopholes that previously allowed companies to hide profits.

With RA 12253, also known as the "Enhanced Fiscal Regime for the Mining Industry Act", there's a better chance the people could finally have clarity on the question of mining revenues, and what is their fair share.

On September 4, 2025, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed into law RA 12253, the “Enhanced Fiscal Regime for the Mining Industry Act.”

This legislation creates a modernised fiscal framework for large-scale metallic mining operations in the Philippines.

Its primary goal: establish a fair, transparent, and accountable system that ensures the government receives a just share of mining revenues while encouraging responsible mining activities.

This law marks a major step forward by addressing long-standing concerns about the fairness and transparency of mining revenues and their impact on communities and the environment.

It replaces older, less effective fiscal policies, aiming to balance investor security with the protection of the Filipino people’s interests and natural resources.

No.

RA 12253 does not mandate mining royalties to be used to bolster the country's wealth fun, the Maharlika Investment Fund, i.e. to preserve revenues from mineral wealth for future generations.

Howeer, this could be mandated through another legislation. The DoF reckons mining royalties could go up to ₱25 billion ($437 million) by 2029.

The mining industry in the Philippines has historically faced criticism for opaque revenue practices and insufficient benefits to local communities and the environment.

For one, previous frameworks allowed mining companies to offset profits with losses from other projects, leading to lower royalties and taxes paid to the government.

In response, the government sought to create a system that ensures greater transparency, accountability, and fairness in mining operations.

There was also a pressing need to guarantee environmental protection and direct benefits for communities situated near mining sites.

RA 12253 was developed to fix these issues by streamlining management of mining revenues, imposing clear royalty and tax rules.

Provisions to strengthen government oversight of mining sales and exports could be a game-changer.

In theory, it promises to deliver a number of benefits, including:

In a nutshell, RA 12253 reforms the mining fiscal system to protect the country’s natural wealth, ensure fair economic gains for Filipinos, and promote responsible mining that benefits both people and the environment.

Is RA 12253 enough to safeguard the interests of the state and the Filipino people?

[Note: Comprehensive data on mining royalties in the Philippines over the last 20 years in a single, published table is sparse and not readily available in a consolidated format from publicly-accessible sources. While some sources provide snapshots of royalty rates and tax structures for specific years, no continuous dataset or table (for example, spanning 2005 to 2025), can be found. If you come across one relevant dataset, we're happy to be corrected, and update this article.]