Marcventures Mining and Development Corp. said Friday the general audit findings on the company are “defensible and can be reversed.”
Marcventures is one of the 20 companies whose mining operations were recommended for suspension for several alleged violations. Marcventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marcventures Holdings Inc., operates a nickel mine in Surigao del Sur.
The DENR said the company had not implemented the planting of 3 million seedlings imposed as penalty for mining outside the areas covered by its partial declaration of mining project feasibility.
The department said the company also had no valid discharge permits for its silt-ponds and oil and water separator after their expiration.
The DENR said Marcventures had no approved environmental protection and enhancement program and failed to establish a final mine rehabilitation or decommissioning plan.
It noted that Marcventures’ mining area was also within the proclaimed watershed reserve.
“Pending receipt of the full report to be issued by the DENR, we can only surmise on alleged deficiencies or violations. Based on our review, the general audit findings are defensible and can be reversed,” Marcventures said.
“It appears that there may have been some unintended oversight in the audit since there are matters which are yet to be acted upon by the DENR, such as the offer to provide P30 million for the implementation of the three million tree planting program, application for discharge permits and request for approval of the environmental protection and enhancement… ,” the company added.
Marcventures said it was confident a review of the documents submitted by the company would reverse the “unwarranted findings.”
“With regard to the watershed issue, as far as we are aware, this has already been resolved,” Marcventures said.
The company said Proclamation No. 1747 recognized the prior rights of contract holders.
“As far as we are aware, we are fully compliant and have not received any notice of environmental violation. We are proud of our mine. We invite inspection thereof so we can demonstrate our environmental compliance by showing the clean waters on our rivers, causeways and berthing area,” Marcventures said.