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DAVAO CITY — Mining firms operating in Mindanao have rallied behind Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI), whose planned $5.9-billion copper-gold project in Tampakan, South Cotabato now faces an uncertain future.
A resolution presented at the end of a mining summit last week to Mindanao Development Authority Chairperson Luwalhati R. Antonino, for submission to Malacañang, tagged the Tampakan project as the industry’s “flagship” on the island.
In his remarks during the 2nd Mindanao Mining Summit held here last Aug. 12, Mindanao Business Council Chairman Vicente T. Lao said the resolution should help “fast-track the process of pushing for the Tampakan copper and gold project,” whose operation is threatened by South Cotabato’s open-pit mining ban.
SMI’s project is scheduled to start commercial operations in 2016.
But in order to do so, building of structures on the site should start by next year, an SMI spokesman had said earlier this year.
The project now faces a major risk in the form of a ban on open-pit mining — the form of mineral extraction planned on the site — imposed by the South Cotabato government at the end of June last year.
While Malacañang itself had expressed concern over this controversy, it is relying on ongoing dialogue between the company and the provincial government to yield a resolution.
SMI has said the project could face an uncertain future if the problem is not resolved this year.
Speaking in the same event, Artemio F. Disini, chairman of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, noted that three nickel, one gold and three gold and copper projects on the island worth more than $10 billion — including that of SMI in Tampakan — have been lined up for commercial operation from this year to 2017.
Projects involving nickel mining are the $1.5-billion Pujada nickel project of BHP Billiton and Asiaticus Management Corp. in Davao Oriental; Philnico Industrial Corp.’s $1-billion project on Nonoc Island, off the coast of Surigao City; and Nickel Asia Corp.’s $1.3-billion project in Claver, Surigao del Norte.
The gold project in Diwalwal, Monkayo in Compostela Valley has an estimated investment of $120 million.
Besides SMI’s venture, two other copper-gold projects, worth a total of $2.3 billion, are lined up in Kingking, Pantukan in Compostela Valley and in Boyongan, Surigao del Norte. The Kingking project is operated by St. Augustine Gold and Copper Ltd., while Philex Mining Corp. operates the Boyongan project.
Besides the mining summit, another major business event this year is the 20th Mindanao Business Conference, slated to be held on Sept. 7-9 in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur. That event is expected to present a development agenda to Malacañang. — JBE
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Source: Business World, Aug. 18, 2011
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