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By Rhaydz B. Barcia Correspondent
Legazpi City: The provincial
government of Albay has strongly opposed the new exploration of
Lafayette Philippines Inc. (LPI) in the island of Rapu-Rapu, Albay.
Gov. Joey Salceda of Albay warned
the officials of the Environmental Management Bureau and
Mine-Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources against granting any new permit to explore mining
prospects anywhere in Albay.
Salceda, who had strongly opposed
mining in Rapu-Rapu, noted that the host communities of the mining
operations hardly benefited from the activity.
“There is simply no evidence of
widespread benefit to the people from mining operations,” said
Salceda. “Instead, the risks to the environment are becoming
abundantly clear,” he added.
Salceda cited reports of
unscrupulous speculators attempting to exploit Albay’s natural
resources and deprive Albayanos of their rightful share.
Cecile Calleja, LPI
vice-president for corporation affairs told The Manila Times that
they don’t have a new application but are currently doing
exploration in areas approved by MPSA.
“We don’t have new
application. We’re doing exploration in areas we already have an
MPSA since the law requires us to do so within a specified time
frame.” Calleja said.
The Manila Times tried to get the
side of DENR officials in Bicol regarding the reported new
exploration contested by Salceda but to no avail. Sulpicio Bernardo,
officer in charge of the Mines and Geo-science Bureau, was busy
entertaining a phone call, according to an employee while directors
Rey Juan of the DENR regional office and Engr. Gilbert Gonzalez,
director of EMB were in Manila.
The project has a potential life
of eight years with a planned annual production of 10,000 tons of
copper in concentrates; 14,000 tons on zinc concentrates; 50,000
ounces of gold and 600,000 ounces of silver annually with mine
leases covering 180 hectares in the eastern side of Rapu-Rapu.
The project is an open pit mine
focused on the Ungay-Malobago ore body where about six million tons
of ore are to be mined.
Early this year, the Rapu-Rapu
Mining operation was able to ship copper concentrates abroad.
The first shipment was 805 tons
of copper concentrate with a market value of $1.8 million and the
second was 705 metric tons with a market value of $1.1 million. The
third shipment is zinc, approximately 1,600 metric tons for Korea.
Manuel Agcaoili, Rapu-Rapu
Processing Inc. president said that during the four-month test run,
they were able to ship at least 1,510 tons of copper concentrate to
China.
Lafayette began its mining
operations in April 2005, six months after two mine tailings spills
occurred on October 11 and 31 causing fish kills in Albay Gulf.
Opposition to the mining operations has not heeded.
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