Church rejoices at ban on open pit mining in Philippine province

MP Claire Short with Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez

Leaders of the local Catholic Church hierarchy in the Philippine province of South Cotabato have joined with environmental and human rights groups in welcoming a ban on open pit mining.

The local government ban, passed on June 11, is contained in a new Environment Code for the province, located in the Southern island of Mindanao.

Open pit mining involves the extraction of rocks and minerals near to the surface.

South Cotabato, particularly Tampakan town, is at the centre of rich resources, especially copper, gold and nickel deposits which Xstrata Copper, a foreign owned company, has been pursuing for development. However, the Tampakan Project has faced stiff opposition from the local Catholic Church and a network of indigenous peoples and non-governmental organisations.

In welcoming the decision, the national environmental group Haribon commented that, “open pit mining wreaks havoc to the environment; not only does it deforest, it also leaves wildlife homeless, and erodes the soil which upland communities and lowland farmers depend on for their livelihoods”.

"Divine intervention!" declared Fr Romeo Q Catedral, Social Action Center director of the Diocese of Marbel, who is at the forefront of church campaigning against large-scale mining.

"This is a triumph for the people not only of South Cotabato but also nearby provinces," the priest said.

He felt the project jeopardizes the rights to health, food and to a healthy environment of affected communities. However, John Arnaldo, corporate communications manager of Sagittarius Mines Inc., the local operative of the mine, commented that the provincial ban on open pit "won't have a bearing on the plans of the company to pursue the Tampakan project."

He told a Philippine newspaper that “since the Philippine Mining Act (1995) allows open pit mining, a local law cannot supersede a national law". There are also indications that the new Governor of South Cotabato, Arthur Pinggoy, may review and possibly defer implementation of the open pit ban.

The influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has urged officials to see the ban signed into law. In a statement issued by Bishop Broderick Pabillo, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Manila and Secretary General of the National Secretariat of Social Action, the bishops urged that the Code be signed and become an Ordinance to assure the food security of the province and the preservation of the moral values and culture.

Bishop Pabillo said the environment code will be “leaving behind a legacy of intergenerational justice that gives a reasonable certainty for the children of South Cotabato that their future will not involve a serious scarcity of resources and a critical imbalance to the rich agricultural diversity of the province”.

The ban has been welcomed by the UK-based Working Group on Mining in the Philippines. “Local bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez of Marbel, whose diocese includes the Tampakan project, has been a strong opponent of the Mining Act and open cast mining” said Fr Frank Nally, a Columban priest who worked in Mindanao for eight years.

“When he came to London in 2007 for the launch of the Working Group report, Mining in the Philippines - Concerns and Conflicts, Bishop Gutierrez presented a vivid power point presentation on what open cast mining was doing,” Fr Nally reported.

Clare Short MP chaired the meeting and presided over the follow-up report Philippines-Mining or Food? which examined the case of the Tampakan Copper Project.

The Working Group on Mining in the Philippines has supported the Catholic Church’s opposition to the aggressive promotion of large-scale mining in the Philippines and called for the scrapping of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. (Independent Catholic News - Ellen Teague)


Link:http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=16350

NPA Rebels Own Up Attack On Swiss Mining Firm In Southern Philippines

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 03, 2008) – Communist rebels claimed responsibility for the attack on a mining firm in the southern Philippines.

Rebels raided the Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) in the town of Tampakan in South Cotabato early Tuesday, torching buildings and equipment and attacking a military post nearby.

Authorities said no one was injured or killed in the raid, which the New People’s Army (NPA) rebels claimed was a punishment for the giant Swiss mining firm accused of land grabbing, plunder and environmental destruction.

The rebels said the raid was in response to a longstanding demand of the people to put a stop to the firm’s operations in the area.

Gregorio Rosal, spokesman for the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), said rebel forces also seized a pistol, a shotgun, a two-way radio communication set from SMI guards during the raid.

He said rebels also fired deterrent shots at a nearby detachment of the Philippine Army in order to prevent soldiers from coming to the defense of the mining firm they are serving and in order to allow the unhampered withdrawal of the NPA rebels.

“The raid is an important milestone in the effort to put a stop to the firm’s destructive and plunderous (sic) mining operation, defend the ancestral domain of the B'laan tribe; protect the environmental balance of the Liguasan Marsh and the water supply of South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and General Santos City areas; and resist the Arroyo regime's campaign to auction off the country's natural resources to big foreign capitalists,” Rosal said.

NPA forces have previously raided other mining firms in Mindanao which refused to pay illegal taxation. The attack sent a chilling warning to the government that the NPA can carry out offensive despite a massive military operation to crush the growing insurgency problems in Mindanao island.

Indigenous tribes were protesting the operation of the SMI, saying, the mining activities allegedly encroached into ancestral lands and caused pollution in rivers and streams in Tampakan, which is considered a watershed area.

Rosal said the locals are opposing plans by SMI to start open pit mining operations by 2010 in the hinterland villages of Bong Mal, Tablu, Danlag and Pulo Bato.

He said open pit mining operations are considered as among the most ecologically destructive method of mining as this wipe out entire forests and watershed areas.

SMI is partly owned by Xstrata, one of the world's largest mining companies based in Switzerland.

Tampakan is said to be one of the world's “best new large-scale copper gold mines,” with an estimated 11.6 million tons of copper and 14.6 million ounces of gold.

Rosal said the raid against the SMI was part of offensive operations against big foreign mining firms that plunder the country’s natural resources. He accused Manila of protecting mining firms, which have destroyed ancestral lands and polluted the environment and displaced indigenous people.

“The Arroyo regime lets big foreign mining companies siphon out billions of dollars worth of Philippine natural resources to the further detriment of the people's livelihood and the environment.”

“As the people intensify their struggle to assert national patrimony against the rapacity of foreign monopoly capitalists, the New People's Army will carry out more and more punitive actions in response to the people's demands to stop the unbridled rapacious and destructive operations of big foreign mining companies,” Rosal said.

In March last year, NPA rebels also raided a private coal mining firm, the MG Mining Company, in Raja Kabunsuan village in Surigao del Sur's Lingig town.

The NPA carted weapons taken from security guards at the mining headquarters after MG executives refused to pay illegal taxation imposed by the insurgents.

The NPA had been collecting so-called "revolutionary taxes" to support its armed struggle to overthrow the democratic government for a separate Maoist homeland in the Philippines.

The latest attack came days after the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said the NPA has achieved significant military victories in 2007 and warned of more and bigger offensive this year. (Mindanao Examiner)

Rebels Raid Mining Firm In Southern RP

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 01, 2008) – Communist insurgents attacked early Tuesday a mining firm in South Cotabato province in southern Philippines, where security forces are battling the New People's Army (NPA), which is fighting for a separate Maoist state.

The raiders torched a building and destroyed equipment owned by the Sagittarius Mines Inc. in the town called Tampakan past 3 a.m., according to a military report.

No one was reported injured or killed in the raid.

But the attack sent a chilling warning to the government that the NPA can carry out offensive despite a massive military operation to crush the growing insurgency problems in Mindanao island, where Muslim rebels are also fighting for a separate homeland.

The insurgents fled after the attack. The motive of the attack is still unknown, but NPA forces have previously raided other mining firms in Mindanao which refused to pay illegal taxation.

Indigenous tribes also were protesting the operation of the SMI, saying, the mining activities allegedly encroached into ancestral lands and caused pollution in rivers and streams in Tampakan, which is considered a watershed area.

In March last year, insurgents also raided a private coal mining firm, the MG Mining Company, in Raja Cabunsuan village in Surigao del Sur's Lingig town.

The NPA carted weapons taken from security guards at the mining headquarters after MG executives refused to pay illegal taxation imposed by the insurgents.

The NPA had been collecting so-called "revolutionary taxes" to support its armed struggle to overthrow the democratic government for a separate Maoist homeland in the Philippines.

The weapons maintained by mining firms' security guards have also attracted the insurgents.

The latest attack came days after the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said the NPA has achieved significant military victories in 2007 and warned of more and bigger offensive this year. (Mindanao Examiner)

Tampakan Holds Largest Copper Deposits In South East Asia

Xstrata Copper announces that the Mineral Resource estimate for the world-class Tampakan copper-gold project in the Philippines has been increased by over 10% in both tonnes and contained copper, consolidating Tampakan's position as one of the largest undeveloped copper deposits in South East Asia.

The upgraded Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource totals 2.2 billion tonnes at a grade of 0.6% copper and 0.2 grams per tonne gold and contains 12.8 million tonnes of copper and 15.2 million ounces of gold using a 0.3% copper cut-off grade. The Mineral Resource, which includes 24,700 metres of drilling conducted in 2007, also includes estimated average grades for molybdenum of 70 parts per million (ppm).

This is the first resource estimate published by Xstrata Copper since it assumed management control of Tampakan in March 2007 through its Philippines based affiliate Sagittarius Mines, Inc. The previous Mineral Resource estimate of 2 billion tonnes at 0.6% copper, using the same cut-off grade, was published in April 2006.

Xstrata Copper Executive General Manager Project Development Peter Forrestal said the Tampakan deposit represents the largest development project in Xstrata Copper’s portfolio.

"We continue to look for growth opportunities through improvements at existing operations, acquisitions and the development of our strong project pipeline. The promising mineral resource estimate at Tampakan indicates the project has excellent potential to make a substantial contribution to Xstrata Copper's growth profile," Forrestal, who is also President of Sagittarius Mines, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

"We are committed to evaluating and developing the Tampakan project in genuine partnership with the Philippine government and authorities, local institutions and our neighbouring communities."

"As such, our current focus is on feasibility-related studies, which we aim to complete in the second half of 2009, and on advancing our sustainable development programs with local communities," said Forrestal.