Critics asked to give mine firm 100 days

07 March 2006

LEGAZPI CITY—LAFAYETTE PHIL-lippines Inc. (LPI) sent its third shipment of 1,415 metric tons of zinc concentrates to Korea, according to Junie Bernardo, chief of the mining, environment and safety division of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.

The shipment came as business leaders appealed to the firm’s detractors to give LPI 100 days within which to prove that its operations were safe and abide by environmental rules.

The appeal came from businessmen’s groups in Albay.

The Rotary Club of Legazpi, Albay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Quota International Legazpi-Mayon issued a joint statement asking the project’s detractors to give it a l00-day honeymoon period “to further prove itself.”

The groups asked mining critics to check whether mining firms had been complying with requirements on how much they should spend for their host communities to improve lives.

“Vigilance is the price we must pay to hold Lafayette to all its commitments,” the groups said.

“Everybody must keep an open mind at least for this period, which is a reasonable request. In the event Lafayette reneges on its commitments, then we will lead all concerned citizens to compel the DENR to revoke its ECC and license to operate,” they added.

Bernardo said the estimated value of zinc concentrates shipped to Korea was about $500 per MT.

This developed as LPI’s mother company, Australia’s Lafayette Mining Ltd., completed a $15-million convertible note issue.

It was the first of a series of financial inflows that the company expected as a direct result of the government order early this month allowing LPI’s mining project to resume commercial operations in Rapu-Rapu, Albay.

Fund provider Southeast Asia Strategic Asset Fund (SEASAF) had been ready with the financing and was just waiting for Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes, also chair of the Pollution Adjudication Board, to issue the order for the project restart.

Two weeks ago, the company made its first shipment of 865 MT of copper concentrate to China with an estimated value of $695 per MT. Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon