Anti-mining group’s claims baseless, says Lafayette

Lafayette Mining has branded as baseless and irresponsible the allegations by a militant anti-mining group that it said is desperate to stop the Rapu-Rapu project now that it is on the verge of resuming operations.

Barangay Mananao, where those who died come from according to the anti-mining group Kalikasan-PNE, is on the other end of the island and is 15 kilometers away from the project site, the company said.

"This is like saying that the death in Valenzuela was caused by a project located in Muntinlupa," Lafayette said in a statement.

Initial findings showed the deaths to have been caused by high fever or infection. Efforts to further verify these by getting official medical reports and death certificates are underway, the company added.

"The group and others like it have used these tactics in the past and somehow succeeded in using the media in scaring the people unnecessarily, sometimes with dire consequences on the poor," it said.

For instance, Lafayette said its mining project was accused of contaminating with mercury the coastal waters of Sorsogon (Rapu Rapu is in Albay).

This, however, turned out to be a hoax but about 5,000 fishermen lost their livelihood overnight because people were told not to buy fish from the area, it said.

The company said the project was also accused of causing skin diseases in Albay and Sorsogon, an accusation that turned out to have been caused by poverty, poor sanitation and hygiene.

The mining project was accused, too, of having caused the death of a sperm whale that was at first foisted on the public as a dugong for "better news value." The whale was found to have been bludgeoned to death, Lafayette said.

Last December, the project, the company bewailed, was again blamed for a landslide that was 1.5 kilometers away and had long been the subject of warnings because of the area’s steep slope and lost forest cover.

"These latest allegations fall into the same pattern," it said.

Lafayette said it has been fully compliant and any allegation to the contrary has "no basis at all, especially considering that in the past three typhoons (Milenyo, Reming and Seniang), all the environmental systems of the project (ponds, dams and mine pit) suffered no damage despite strong winds and heavy rains."

"Those three consecutive typhoons dumped 882 mm of rain, seven times the rainfall in October 2005 when the project suffered its two minor spills. These are the worst tests a mine could have gone through and the Rapu-Rapu project proved all these anti-mining groups wrong," it said.

Lafayette said that under its new all-Filipino management, it has been "very transparent" in its efforts to meet all the conditions of the government for a resumption of its operations.

The company asked the media and the public "to see through the efforts of a few misguided anti-mining advocates and not fall easily for their baseless allegations."

"The company is always ready and accessible for any verification of facts," it said.