Group insists: Tampakan mine to harm people, nature

Tampakan project, the largest untapped copper and gold reserves in Southeast Asia, would continue to cause harm and disunity around the mining site especially now that President Benigno Aquino III has bolstered his support for mining, an environmental group said Monday.

In a statement, Kalikasan People’s Network (KPN) said magnetite mining in some towns in Cagayan province has already caused “flooding, decreased fish catch, and water pollution along the communities in Cagayan River.”

There is also a high probability that the Tampakan project will “negatively affect” the water sources, the group said, quoting reports of environment groups that did investigative missions probing the dangers and effects to communities of the project.

A joint venture of Sagittarius Mines Inc., Xstrata Copper, Indophil Resources NL, and Alsons Corp., the project is in its development stage. Actual mining operations are expected to start by 2016.

The $5.2-billion project covers 31,599.64 hectares within the bounds of Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato, Sarangani, and Davao del Sur.

Results of its own investigations showed that foreign mining firms and their local partners “either deceive or forced the people to accept their mining projects,” KPN said.

“In Davao del Sur and Sultan Kudarat, people were not informed of the negative impacts that the large-scale mining would bring to their livelihood and environment,” the group said in a statement.

“The mining corporation promised the B’laan [an indigenous group] and peasant communities that large-scale mining will affect their forests, water sources, and agricultural lands, but the company reports and an assessment of the proposed mining plan reveal otherwise,” the statement continued.

However, Sagittarius Mines corporate communications manager John Arnaldo said in an interview with GMANews.TV that the firm is continuously ensuring that people around the site are safe and the environment unharmed.

“Our findings in the mining-affected communities… contradict the pronouncement of President [Benigno] Aquino III during his 100-days report that local communities are the ones which will decide if a mining project will be allowed,” KPN member Clemente Bautista said.

“During the first 100 days of President Aquino, these mining projects were supported or allowed by the national government in spite of the strong opposition from the communities,” Bautista added. Jesse Edep/VS, GMANews.TV