The Philippines is positioning itself as the site for green green metals manufacturing where it will push for the extraction and processing of critical minerals like nickel, copper and cobalt in a “green” manner as part of its decarbonization efforts.
In a panel discussion at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Taguig City yesterday, Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said 90 percent or P2 trillion of the P2.3 trillion investments approved since the start of the Marcos administration are in renewable energy.
“We are ready to catch and play ball,” said Rodolfo in noting the exponential growth in foreign direct investments which grew 10 percent in November 2023; 30 percent in December, 90 percent in January and 28 percent in February. At the Board of Investments (BOI) alone, approved projects went up 15 percent to P609 billion in January to April from P527 billion in the same period in 2023.
“For us the positioning of the Philippines in green metals is important. These metals contribute to decarbonization for greater sustainability by enabling the use of RE and electric vehicles (EVs). The process for which we extract and process will have to be decarbonized. So `green’ green metals is a unique opportunity for us,” Rodolfo said.
He said the Philippines is looking at an appropriate technology other than HPAL or High-pressure acid leaching now being used in processing nickel. This process called STAL is or Step Temperature Acid Leach hydrometallurgical technology seen as effective in extracting nickel for batteries.
Rodolfo said the Philippines is rich in the type of nickel needed for batteries that run EV.
“ Ever since Indonesia banned export of nickel ore, the Philippines has become the biggest exporter (of ore). Twenty percent of the nickel that we mine are processed by a Japanese company into an intermediary product exported to Japan and processed to a precursor of batteries which in turn then exported (to the US) for Tesla. Seventy to 80 percent of our nickel ore is exported to a country dominant on battery production and is dependent on us since 89 percent of the volume it needs comes from the Philippines,” Rodolfo said.
He said discussions are ongoing discussion among countries within the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework to try to add more value to the Philippines’ nickel processing in a green way
He said the Philippines from the get-go we can be green from the very beginning because it is hard to decarbonize an existing process,” he added.
The BOI, Rodolfo said, is woking on incentives for the sector, where they can qualify for 40 years of incentives to recoup the capital costs of a processing facility.
