Tampakan project prospects dim
By J. C. Lim | Posted on July 28, 2016
ONCE TOUTED as potentially the Philippines’ biggest foreign investment, the Tampakan copper-gold mine project in Mindanao — initially estimated to cost some $5.9 billion to develop and which has suffered delays since 2010 due to regulatory and policy hurdles — will not proceed to operational phase at least in the next six years, if the new Environment chief were to have her way.
“I really don’t like Tampakan at all. Not a little. You can put that in capital letter[s]. At all… I would not even consider it at all,” Environment and Natural Resources chief Regina Paz “Gina” L. Lopez said in a press conference in Quezon City on Wednesday.
“It’s a 700-hectare football field, open-pit mine on top of rice fields and agriculture lands, affecting provinces and six rivers,” Ms. Lopez said.
“Why do we even consider it at all?… It’s immoral and it’s socially unjust to allow companies to put the lives of all the farmers and indigenous people at risk.”
Sought for his group’s side, Nicasio I. Alcantara — a contributor to the campaign of President Rodrigo R. Duterte and president of Alcantara Group that last year consolidated its indirect controlling stake in Tampakan project proponent Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) after buying out Glencore plc — said in a phone interview: “I cannot comment right now.” Investors shrugged off the news, as reflected by the 2.11% hike in share price of the group’s listed Alsons Consolidated Resources, Inc. to P1.94 on Wednesday.
The project site covers an area of around 10,000 hectares straddling Tampakan, South Cotabato; Columbio in Sultan Kudarat; Kiblawan in Davao del Sur; and Malungon in Sarangani.
The project site is estimated to have 15 million tons of copper and nearly 18 million ounces of gold.
Value of mine production had been estimated at $37 billion over 20 years.
After South Cotabato banned open-pit mining on the eve of former president Benigno S. C. Aquino III’s assumption of office at end-June 2010, SMI said in 2012 that it deferred start of commercial operations to 2019 from 2016 originally.
The government issued a provisional environmental compliance certificate (ECC) for the project in February 2013, but that was conditional on it securing the endorsement of local governments of areas hosting the project, among other requirements.
Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Leo L. Jasareno told reporters Wednesday: “Remember ang ECC pag binibigay ng DENR, hindi naman tapos (…when the Department of Environment and Natural Resources issues an ECC, it is not final but) — subject to certain conditions.”
By last year, SMI had secured the endorsement of most local government units (LGU) concerned, fulfilling a key requirement for Declaration of Mining Project Feasibility — the final clearance for a mining company to start construction on site.
Mr. Jasareno noted that only South Cotabato does not endorse the project.
“The ban is still in place. But the Philippine Mining Act (of 1995, or Republic Act No. 7942) only requires majority LGU endorsement, which SMI has already complied with. So as far as the rules are concerned, they have already met it,” Mr. Jasareno said.
But he added that SMI still has to secure a permit from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
There is also the need to first cancel Certificates of Land Ownership Award issued in 2008 to land reform beneficiaries covering 3,921 hectares of the project site in five barangays in Tampakan.
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