Arroyo hailed the court's Wednesday ruling, telling local officials it would help ease poverty in rural areas where the majority of the country's poorest people live.

"We are now poised for an investment take-off never seen in the recent past. The rural infrastructure under you will take new shape," she said in a speech.

Arroyo said the Philippines had the potential to be "the fifth largest mining power in the world," with the third largest gold reserves, fourth largest in copper, fifth in nickel and sixth in chromite.

Arroyo also said mining could help prevent a repeat of the destructive floods and landslides, blamed on deforestation, which have left hundreds dead or or missing after a devastating storm this week.

By bringing jobs and development to rural areas, mining would keep the poor from resorting to illegal logging or slash-and-burn farming, she said.

Arroyo vowed to town and city mayors that under the law, a percentage of taxes paid by mining companies would go towards communities, down to the smallest village.

Investors at the stock exchange flocked to mining shares on Thursday. While the main composite index was flat, the mining sub-index jumped 19.6 percent.

The industry association, Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, hailed the court's reversal of its original decision in January.

The previous ruling had imperiled an estimated 9.5 billion dollars in potential annual mining revenues, the government had said.

The chamber will host an international mining conference in Manila in February to drum up interest in the resources industry and supplementary activities.

Benjamin Romualdez, president of Benguet Corp., one of the Philippines' largest mining firms, and also head of the country's mining chamber, estimates that the Philippines could get six to seven billion dollars in new foreign investment in mining in the next six years as a result of the court decision.

"It has been an excruciating year for the mining industry but all the anxieties have left us. We can finally move on in the development of pipeline projects," the chamber said in a statement.

In recent years, many of the country's mines have closed down while potential mineral resources have been left untapped because local firms lacked the funds to modernize or develop the mines.

The chamber said that in 2003, the industry had a gross production value of 764 million dollars, accounting for just 1.52 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), compared with more than two percent in the 1980s.

Mineral exports, once a top dollar-earner, brought in only 638 million dollars or about 1.8 percent of total exports last year.

The cash-strapped Arroyo government, facing a potential fiscal crisis, has been betting on a revival of the once-booming mining industry.

The government estimates total viable mineral resources at 840 billion dollars or 10 times the countrys annual GDP and 15 times its total foreign debt.

According to Arroyo's 2004-2010 development plan, the mining industry should generate between four and six billion dollars in investments, five to seven billion dollars in annual foreign exchange and at least 240,000 jobs over the six-year period.

However, environmental and leftist groups, with backing from the dominant Roman Catholic Church, have hobbled the mining industry, charging that mining harms the environment, displaces local communities and gives foreign investors control of the country's resources.

Incidents like the spillage of toxic mine tailings from the Marcopper Mining Corp. into a river in 1996, have strengthened popular sentiment against mining.

Kalikasan, a leftist environmental group has scheduled protests against the Supreme Court decision.

"We want the government to nationalize the mining industry," said Kalikasan national coordinator, Enteng Bautista, arguing that this would ensure that environmental and industrialization policies would be implemented.

The mining industry's Romualdez conceded that "the extremist, leftist NGOs (non-government organizations) have won the propaganda campaign over the years but I think that attitude has changed."

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