Canadian mining firm starts Zambo copper-gold proj

Canadian mining company TVI Resource Development (Phils.) Inc. started last week the commercial operation of its copper-gold mining project in Sitio Canatuan, Barangay Tabayo, Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte.

Reynaldo O. Magpantay, a executive of TVI, said the company began the first phase of the commissioning of its expanded mill operations last June 28 but mining operations actually started in the latter part of May, with more than 5,000 metric tons (MT) of ore already stockpiled for processing.

The activities under phase I-A of the construction program include mill expansion site, infrastructure upgrades, new mine offices and staff house, site access road improvements, and sedimentation control structures/drainage works for the haul roads and mine perimeter.

Magpantay said the construction is still ongoing. It aims to substantially raise throughput to 175 MT daily by the end of the third quarter.

In the next few months, the company will begin the construction of a larger thickener, leach tanks, and a Merrill-Crowe circuit to improve silver recoveries.

TVI president and chief executive officer Clifford James said the completion of phase I is a milestone for the company because it marks the the first processing of TVI mined ore from a TVI-operated mine and it is also the first commercial mine to be developed in the Philippines in four years.

"The company was able to make the project happen in the face of considerable logistical difficulties in a remote region," said James in a statement.

The mining project is located in the ancestral lands of the indigenous Subanen people, who previously resisted any large-scale mining operation in the area.

However, TVI was able to forge a memorandum of agreement in November 2003 with the Subanen Council of Elders and a faction of Siocon Subanen Association, Inc. (SSAI) led by Juanito T. Tumangkis.