Philex confident it will resume operations

MANILA, Philippines - Philex Mining Corp. (PMC) assured yesterday the public that the operations of its copper-gold mine in Padcal, Benguet, which has a mine life of until 2020, would be resumed.

“I can assure you we can return to operations. Philex will rise from this accident bigger, stronger, better,” said PMC spokesperson Mike Toledo in a speech delivered during a Mining Luncheon session at the Manila Polo Club yesterday.

Toledo said the company is now determining the location for tailings pond No. 4 and, possibly, tailings pond No. 5 which would replace the broken tailings pond No. 3 that will be condemned.

Construction of tailings pond No. 4 is seen to commence early next year. He said changing weather conditions would be taken into consideration for the design of the new tailings pond. 

He said there is still no specific target date for the resumption of operations but the company is looking at a conservative target of between six to 12 months.

“We would like to operate as soon as possible but we are looking at a conservative estimate of six to 12 months. Hopefully, shorter than that,” said Toledo.

He maintains that operations of the mine would not resume until the integrity of tailings pond No. 3 is assured.

“We are instituting short-term and long term solutions for rehabilitation.”

PMC is facing fines of P1.034 billion for violation of the Mining Act of 1995 as imposed by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) has also imposed a fine of P50,000 on the company for violating condition 2 of its Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) contract which states that tailings should be 100 percent contained.

It is also facing penalties of P50,000 to P200,000 per day for violation of the Clean Water Act of 2004 for the pollution that seeped into the Agno River and Balog Creek. The total amount is still being determined by the Pollution Adjudication Board.

PMC has said that it would contest both fines, saying the accident was caused by force majeur. It said, however, that it is willing to pay for the cost of the cleanup as well as damages for families affected by the spill.

“Payment of fines would mean acceptance of fault, for which there was none. Philex has the capacity and willingness to pay the expenses for the clean up and damages to families,” said Toledo yesterday.

MGB director Leo Jasareno earlier said that PMC would first have to settle its obligations and institute remediating measures before it resumes operations of the Padcal mine and pursue other projects.

Section 5 of the implementing rules and regulation of the new mining policy states that in case of violation of the Mining Act, the MGB would order the mining contractor “to undertake the necessary remediation measures for the affected areas, including the communities involved, and shall summarily issue pertinent suspension until the danger is removed.”

It also states that mining rights shall be granted “only to those who are able to strictly comply with the environmental management record requirement.”

“Thus, all mining applicants, including the individual owners/officials of juridical entities with record(s) of environmental incidents, where the required remediation measures for the affected areas under applicable laws and regulations were not implemented by them, such as, but not limited to, destructive tailings spill and indiscriminate mining operation, shall be permanently disqualified from acquiring mining rights and operating mining projects.”

Toledo said the company is seeking clarifications on the provision with the government because this could possibly affect future projects of the company.

“This is a provision that needs to be clarified,” said Toledo.

For the meantime, Toledo said PMC is keeping its target date of 2017 for the commissioning of its copper-gold project in Silangan, Surigao del Norte.