The Semirara Mining and Power Corporation (SMPC) is a mining company based in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. The company, a subsidiary of

DMCI Holdings DMCI Homes, Inc. is the real estate arm of DMCI Holdings through its wholly owned subsidiary DMCI Project Developers, Inc. (PDI). It was incorporated and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 27, 1995. It rank ...

, operates its main coal mine in

Semirara Island Semirara is an island in the Philippines located at in the Caluya archipelago which is situated south of Mindoro Island. It is under the jurisdiction of the town of Caluya of the province of Antique. It is a major site of coal mining in the Phili ...

and is the biggest coal producer in the

accounting for 92 percent of the total national production as of 2015.

History

The company was established on February 26, 1980 as the "Semirara Coal Corporation" (SCC). The company entered an agreement with the

Department of Energy A Ministry of Energy or Department of Energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-rel ...

for an exclusive right to develop, explore, and mine coal resources on

in the town of

Caluya Caluya, officially the Municipality of Caluya ( krj, Banwa kang Caluya; hil, Banwa sang Caluya; tl, Bayan ng Caluya), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Antique, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 38,90 ...

Antique An antique ( la, antiquus; 'old', 'ancient') is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely ...

. The company discovered

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

sites in Semirara in Unong and Panian. In 1981, coal deposits were discovered in a third site; in Himalian. SCC, along with Austrian state firm Voest Alpine opened the first coal mining site in the island in Unong in 1984. In 1997,

DMCI Holdings, Inc. DMCI Homes, Inc. is the real estate arm of DMCI Holdings through its wholly owned subsidiary DMCI Project Developers, Inc. (PDI). It was incorporated and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 27, 1995. It ranke ...

began acquiring in SCC securing 40 percent of the company's common shares which it bought from Voest Alpine. By 1999, DMCI gained a controlling stake in SCC, introducing a new management to the company which was renamed as Semirara Mining Corporation. It also opened the company's second mining site in Panian in anticipation of the Unong mine's closure. SMC was listed in the

Philippine Stock Exchange The Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. ( fil, Pamilihang Sapi ng Pilipinas; ) is the national stock exchange of the Philippines. The exchange was created in 1992 from the merger of the Manila Stock Exchange and the Makati Stock Exchange. Includin ...

in 2005. SMC exported its first coal to China in 2007 and has since then expanded its foreign market to include India, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand. It changed its name to the "Semirara Mining and Power Corporation" (SMPC) in 2014 to reflect the expansion of its business to include electricity generation on top of its coal mining operations. SPMC exhausted the Panian mine in 2016, which was replaced by the Narra and Molave mines within the same year. In 2018, SMPC relinquish its rights to explore and mine coal in Caluya and Sibay Islands, which neighbors Semirara Island.

Coal mining

SPMPC's primary mining site is in Semirara Island where it has operated numerous coal mines. It operated the Unong Pit in Semirara Island until 2000 and the Panian Pit until 2016. It opened the Narra and Molave Pit in the islands as replacements. ;List of coal mines *Narra Pit *Molave Pit *Panian Pit *Unong Pit

Accidents

In February 2013, at least five miners died after a collapse at the Panian Pit in Semirara Island. Nine miners died in a separate accident in 2015 after a collapse in the same mine caused by a rain-induced landslide.

References

{{PSEi 1980 establishments in the Philippines Mining companies of the Philippines Coal companies of the Philippines Coal mining in the Philippines Companies based in Makati Companies listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange Companies in the PSE Composite Index