Rapu-Rapu mine adopts measures to protect environment

MANILA, Philippines - The new management of the Rapu-Rapu polymetallic project in Albay said yesterday that it is putting in place measures to protect the people and the environment.

Roger Corpus, president of Rapu-Rapu Minerals, Inc., said the new management is “continuously strengthening measures to safeguard the people of Rapu-Rapu island and their surrounding environment.”

Corpus said the project, “can only be successful if we protect local residents and the environment for the long term.”

He pointed out that any adverse health impact will affect first the 875 personnel at the mine and the processing plant before nearby residents experience any effects.

So far, Corpus said, there has been no such health impact from the Rapu-Rapu operations.

He said the following measures have been put in place to protect Rapu-Rapu residents and the environment.

• The acid mine drainage (AMD) and the tailings storage facility (TSF) have been strengthened and developed further to a capacity of 1.4 million cubic meters, of which 540,000 cubic meters are currently available. TSF construction is progressive to increase dam capacity and accommodate more tailings generated by the process plant.

• Tailings are kept underwater to render them inactive. While best practice calls for a cover of two meters of water, the TSF now has a depth of 10 meters of water covering the tailings.

• Sampling at several points of the tailings pond from the surface and a few meters below surface is conducted to ascertain water quality, as specified by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), prior to discharge.

• The project’s approved Environmental Protection and Enhancement Program specifies a total of 26 water quality monitoring stations. On its own initiative, the project has established additional monitoring stations to cover a much bigger area, so there are now 37 stations.

• As mandated by the Mining Act of 1995 and as a concrete example of multi-sectoral involvement, a Multipartite Monitoring Team (MMT) of regulators, NGOs and LGUs, including the host barangays, conducts quarterly monitoring and inspection of project facilities and operations. The MMT’s findings are the basis for tracking environmental performance and compliance. To date, the project’s effluents have been found to comply with established standards.

• Since July, 2008, the new shareholders of Rapu-Rapu have deposited P50 million into an escrow fund for its Final Mine Rehabilitation and Decommissioning Plan (FMRDP). The fund will cover the costs of rehabilitating the site and decommissioning the mine at the end of extraction operations.

The Rapu-Rapu project has successfully passed the Surveillance Audits for its ISO 14001 certifications for environmental managements systems (EMS).

The ISO 14001 certifications signify that the environmental management systems of Rapu-Rapu adhere to globally recognized standards, and that the project is environmentally compliant, Corpus said.

Operations of the Rapu-Rapu Polymetallic Project in Albay were resumed October last year under new shareholders.