Risk assessment on mines ordered

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Angelo Reyes has ordered the conduct of a nationwide risk assessment on all operating and non-operating mines, including abandoned ones, in a bid to reduce risks to human health, the environment as well as economic investments.

Reyes instructed the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and all its regional offices to coordinate with concerned companies and entities to undertake the risk assessment the soonest time possible.

"The government and the private mining companies must work hand in hand to ensure that all mines are safe and will remain safe when troubles of natural disaster, which we cannot control, strike," Reyes said.

The MGB, the Environmental Management Bureau, the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority, the DENR-Foreign-Assisted and Special Projects Office were also instructed to provide all the necessary technical and material assistance to the regional offices conducting the assessment.

With the conduct of such risk assessment, Reyes said the DENR would like to ensure that there will be no repeat of mining accidents like Marcopper or Rapu-Rapu.

The DENR chief issued the order two weeks after it declared the Marcopper mine in Marinduque unharmed by the 5.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the island late last month, and just days after the first anniversary of the tailings spill that forced the Rapu-Rapu Polymetallic Project in Albay to stop its operation. Marcopper, like Rapu-Rapu mine, stopped its operations in 1996 after an accidental tailings spill.

"Let it be a reminder to everyone, especially our friends in the mining sector, that at the foremost consideration of our mining revitalization program will always be the best interest of the people and the environment," Reyes said. - Jasmin R. Uy