15 February 2007
By Ephraim Aguilar
Rapu-Rapu, Albay
VILLAGERS LIVING NEAR THE Lafayette mining site in Rapu-Rapu, Albay would commonly say that they remain vigilant despite their qualms about the government allowing the full resumption of the company’s operations.
“Maybe there’s nothing more we could do to oppose the mining. But we would be in favor of it, if only the mining process is done correctly,” said Milo Asuncion, 47, councilor of Barangay Pagcolbon.
He said the residents were also afraid of the risks posed by the mining operations, especially during natural disasters, which may threaten fishing, their main source of living.
Aladin Valenzuela, 56, of Barangay Linao, however, said he was in favor of mining because it could give jobs to the villagers.
In fact, Valenzuela’s 21-year-old son and nephew were jobless until they were hired as laborers for the mining site.
“I used to plant coconut and abaca but since the typhoons destroyed my crops I could no longer earn a living. We now rely on my son’s earnings from Lafayette,” he said.
However, there were not really many jobs created by the mining company in the community, he said.
“Many would apply and spend money for the application but only a few could be employed in the company,” Valenzuela said.
Promise
For Asuncion, the mining company has yet to prove its sincerity in fulfilling its promise of development to the communities.
“They said they’d be putting up a water system in our village and create many jobs. But only a few of the many residents of Rapu-Rapu who applied for a job in Lafayette actually got employed,” he said.
Carlos Dominguez, Lafayette Philippines Inc. (LPI) chair and president, said the company created around 1,000 jobs in Rapu-Rapu and fed more than 700 people every day.
The LPI earlier filed a petition for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to permanently lift the cease-and-desist order it issued against the mining operations following two mine tailings spills on Oct. 11 and 31, 2005.
The mining company was given 120 days of test run to prove that it is capable of responsible mining.
The fate of the much-disputed firm operating a copper and zinc mine at Barangay Pagcolbon was determined on Feb. 8 in a meeting of the DENR’s Pollution Adjudication Board in Manila.
On that day, the mining firm was given the go-signal to resume operations by Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes.
In a statement sent to the Inquirer, Dominguez said the company was only partly thankful for the order to resume commercial operations.
“Our workers, suppliers and other business partners can now also look forward to the company’s stability. The whole mining industry here and abroad have been watching and monitoring our progress and will definitely show heightened interest in the Philippines as an investment area,” said Dominguez.
He said the company has met all the preconditions set by the government.
“We worked long and hard for this day. It’s been more than a year since we, an all-Filipino team, took over management of the Rapu-Rapu project to institute all the needed reforms to transform it into a model of responsible mining.”
Rally
Environmental activists, however, staged a rally in front of the DENR central office and shaved off their heads to protest “Lafayette’s denudation of Rapu-Rapu island.”
The Kalikasan-PNE, in a statement, called on the government to investigate the cause of reported mysterious deaths at Sitio Acal, some 15 kilometers away from the mining site.
Clemente Bautista, Kalikasan-PNE national coordinator, said the reported Sitio Acal deaths have been initially verified by field reports from the DENR-Bicol and the Rapu-Rapu Municipal Health Office documenting at least four persons dead and two sick.
According to the report, the fatalities include a certain JV Ebrada, 17 years old, with swollen legs and feet. Among the sick were a certain Victor Ebrada, 40, who had swollen legs and feet and Maribel Dorado, 22, whose entire body was swollen.
“We are not inclined to take deaths from local communities lightly, especially if these may be related to environmental problems,” the group stated, adding:
“Whether or not the Lafayette mining operations is the culprit in the Sitio Acal deaths, we take this opportunity to assert that the real threat of heavy metal pollution on the local communities’ health will remain and will intensify for as long as Lafayette mining is allowed to operate in Rapu-Rapu.”
But Lafayette branded Kalikasan-PNE’s allegations as “baseless and irresponsible” citing the mining site’s 15-km distance from Barangay Mananao where the reported deaths occurred.
“Initial findings showed the deaths to have been caused by high fever or infection. Efforts to further verify these by getting official medical reports and death certificates are underway,” Lafayette said in a statement.
It added that Kalikasan-PNE and other groups have used similar tactics in the past and somehow succeeded in using the media in scaring the people unnecessarily, sometimes with dire consequences on the poor.
Copper and zinc
Marc Campos, senior vice president for production and commercial operations of the Rapu-Rapu Processing Inc. (RRPI), LPI’s affiliate company, said they had spent about $60 million in compliance to the preconditions, including mitigation measures like the strengthening of the dam system, to prevent spills from happening again.
Within the 120-day test run, LPI had produced 1,400 tons of copper concentrate and 1,500 tons of zinc concentrate with a total value of $2.5 million, Campos said.
Lafayette had made its first shipment of 805 tons of copper concentrate to the United States with a total value of $1.8 million. It is now working on its second shipment of 700 tons of copper concentrate worth $1.1 million, said Manuel Agcaoili, RRPI president.
The mine, operating in an 18-hectare open pit, is capable of producing 30,000 metric tons of copper and 40,000 to 50,000 metric tons of zinc annually with monthly exports of about $7 million per month depending on the market price of copper and zinc.
No comments:
Post a Comment