UK firm's Vizcaya mine bid nixed

SOLANO, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Tribal communities here rejected the bid of a British-Filipino consortium firm to conduct mining operations in the outskirts of this province’s premier town.

In a community referendum on Wednesday, villagers in Barangay Comonal unanimously opposed a proposed limestone project in their area amid fears of environmental destruction.

The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples supervised the referendum, which followed a series of community consultations by project proponents and Church-led anti-mining groups.

The referendum is part of the Free and Prior Informed Consent process, that any mining firm should seek from concerned communities before undertaking any mining project in their area as embodied in the 1995 Mining Act and in the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act. 

The project, which involves the massive extraction of limestone in the indigenous peoples-dominated upland area, was supposed to be undertaken by the Filipino-British mining consortium Woogle Corp.