Plan to help mining towns

A PLAN for helping to reach the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, called community-based monitoring System, has been set up by the municipality of Tampakan in South Cotabato, and in Kiblawan and Malalag towns in Davao del Sur—areas sitting on what could be the biggest copper-gold deposit in Southeast Asia.

The collaborative effort by the local governments, the Interior Department, the Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies, and Sagittarius Mines Inc., the contractor for the Tampakan Copper-Gold project, was formalized at a signing of a memorandum of agreement in General Santos City recently, Sagittarius Mines said.

The company said it was aiming to help the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples prepare an action plan for the host communities of its mine and other facilities.

The mining firm said it would also develop a resettlement action plan and various other social and livelihood programs in connection with its mining operations.

“In order to ensure that the programs are effective and responsive, [Sagittarius Mines] seeks an updated understanding of the key demographic indicators within the local government unit’s jurisdiction,” the company said. –Manila Standard Today