Environment Secretary Regina Lopez said Wednesday she will not allow the $5.9-billion Tampakan mine project to operate under her term.
Sagittarius Mines Inc., which is controlled by Indophil Resources NL, is developing the Tampakan project, which could be one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits. The Alcantara Group bought Glencore Plc. out of SMI last year.
“I don’t like Tampakan at all. That open-pit mining will be on top of rice fields, agricultural lands and will affect four provinces and six rivers. Why do we even consider it at all?” Lopez said.
Lopez said the Tampakan project was as large as 700 football fields. “I will not consider it at all. There are many poor farmers there. I have to be honest, I will have to live by my principle. There is no way I would ever, ever allow a 700 football field open-pit mine on top of agricultural land,” Lopez said.
“It’s immoral and it’s socially unjust to allow companies to make money and put in the lives of the people there at risk,” she said.
Early estimates showed the Tampakan project had a resource of 2.94 billion tons, containing 15 million tons of copper and 17.9 million ounces of gold at a 0.2 percent copper cut-off grade. The copper and gold mine straddles the town of Tampakan in South Cotabato and Kiblawan in Davao del Sur.
Mines and Geosciences Bureau director Leo Jasareno said the mining project was facing several issues. The project is also being opposed by the provincial government of South Cotabato, because of the SMI’s plan to undertake open-pit mining.
“They still need to address the issue of the certificate of land ownership award which is issued under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. That should be resolved first. In addition to that is the open-pit ban in South Cotabato,” Jasareno said.
Jasareno said under Executive Order No. 79, CARP-covered areas were closed to mining.
Meanwhile, MGB said mineral production value fell 12 percent in the first quarter to P22.09 billion from P24.98 billion in the same period last year on lower metal prices. MGB said total gold production value amounted to P10.68 billion in the three-month period.
Masbate Gold Project of Filminera Mining Corp. and Philippine Gold Processing and Refining Corp. in Masbate and Didipio Gold Project of Oceana Gold Philippines Inc. in Nueva Vizcaya produced 1,640 kilograms and 1,456 kilograms of gold, respectively.
Value of direct shipping nickel ore and mixed sulfide amounted to P6.88 billion, while copper production value reached P4.34 billion.
The remaining 0.87 percent or P0.19 billion, came from the combined values of silver and chromite.
“The slow start of mine production of direct shipping nickel ore for the year was attributed to the unfavorable weather condition that generally prevailed in the areas of Dinagat and Surigao provinces,” MGB said.
MGB said major nickel producers during the period were Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp. and Taganito Mining Corp. with 789,483 dry metric tons and 723,493 dry metric tons, respectively.
The red metal production grew 16 percent from 79,976 dry metric tons to 92,561 dry metric tons.
MGB said of the three copper mines, Toledo Copper Project of Carmen Copper Corp. in Cebu contributed 55 percent, or 50,838 dry metric tons, while in far second and last position were Didipio Copper-Gold Project of Oceana Gold and Padcal Copper-Gold Project of Philex Mining Corp. in Benguet province with 23,919 dry metric tons and 17,804 dry metric tons of production respectively.
MGB said despite the increase in production volume, value went down by 11 percent from P4.89 billion to P4.34 billion.
Prices of precious metals gold and silver and the base metals copper and nickel all posted downward trend in the first quarter. The average price gold dropped 3.51 percent from $1,221.87 per troy ounce to $1,178.92 per troy ounce.
MGB said the average price of silver also went down by 11.48 percent to $14.84 per troy ounce from $16.76 per troy ounce.