The Court of Appeals (CA) decision declaring the municipality of Tampakan in South Cotabato’s deficiency tax assessment against Sagittarius Mines Inc. as onerous has forced local government officials to issue the enterprise a business permit to operate.
Instead of the Swiss and Filipino enterprise paying the LGU deficiency tax of close to P400 million, SMI wrote a check for only P24,579 and start gold and copper operations as early as the fourth quarter this year.
The LGU was left with a few friends in the dispute as even the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of South Cotabato reportedly viewed Tampakan’s Revised Municipal Revenue Code of 2022 with disfavor.
SMI said it has secured all major approvals to develop and operate the mine site and bared readiness to conduct business as usual given the CTA preliminary injunction issued in February this year.
SMI said it has invested P31 billion in developing the project, paid P2.58 billion in national taxes and P37.78 million more in local taxes.
The Tampakan copper-gold mine site straddles four provinces in Mindanao that include South Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat and Davao del Sur and regarded one of the largest undeveloped mineral deposits in Southeast Asia requiring at least $1 billion to start operations.
It has estimated reserves of 15 million tons of copper and nearly 18 million ounces of gold over an estimated 17-year mine life.
