DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 12, 2012) – Environmental groups in the Philippines expressed alarm over the effect of the Tampakan Copper-Gold Mine Project of the Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) in General Santos City in the southern Philippines.
The Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) said no Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) is valid for the project. It has sent a letter to Environmental Management Bureau Director Jose Miguel Cuna on Wednesday, requesting the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to release its final decision over SMI’s request for ECC as recommended by the Environment Impact Assessment Review Committee.
ECC is a document that will be issued by DENR Secretary or its Regional Executive Director after it is able to validate that an undertaking will not cause significant negative environmental impact and that the proponent has complied with all the requirements of the Environment Impact Statement.
ATM said it had doubts that the Tampakan Project had responded rightfully in these considerations.
“We do not want to attract more casualties and death when natural disaster hit Mindanao or the whole country. Tampakan Project just like the other mining venture in the country poses high threats for the environment and the community,” Jaybee Garganera, National Coordinator of Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
As the Tampakan mining project progresses steps for its full implementation, various organizations had been repelling its implementation. In September 2011, the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Marbel had drawn more than 5,000 people in a public forum challenging the Environmental Impact Assessment of SMI. The group was also able to collect 100,000 signatures from people opposing the planned large-scale mining.
Farmers previously staged a shame campaign against SMI deterring the probable billion tons of toxic waste rocks and tailings that may pollute their water and damage agricultural production in an any single failure at any time should the project be pursued.
“We cannot defy nature. Experts already claimed that the Tampakan Mining Project covering provinces in South Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat and Davao Del Sur is sitting on a stratovolcano complex that can be filled with explosives and toxic gas capable of killing many people,” explained Anabelle Plantilla, Chief Operating Officer of Haribon Foundation recalling the report of the London Working Group on Mining in the Philippines.
Garganera urges DENR to be transparent in this undertaking. “We need to know if the department is advancing the interests of the affected communities more than anything else. We have already expressed our deep grief when the mining exploration was approved, we should not have the same fate for ECC. What we want is a total rejection of the project,” Garganera asked.
The Tampakan deposit represents the largest undeveloped copper-gold deposit in the South East Asia-Western Pacific Region. The resource contains 13.5 million tonnes of copper metal and 15.8 million ounces of gold.
There was no immediate statement from SMI about the allegations of the ATM.
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