OceanaGold to carry out reforestation program

MANILA, Philippines - OceanaGold Philippines Inc. said yesterday it will continue to carry out its reforestation, forest protection and other environmental and livelihood programs that would benefit not only the residents in Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya,  where its gold-copper mining project is located, but also those in the neighboring communities.

The firm said  even before it starts operation, it has already implemented a reforestation program at its mine site where it has so far planted more than 250,000 seedlings of various forest and fruit-bearing trees covering 103 hectares.

In collaboration with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and local government agencies in Nueva  Vizcaya, OceanaGold has  also undertaken a province-wide reforestation program by planting over 29,000 seedlings in July to October this year.

OceanaGold was  the recipient of the 2011 Philippine Mine Safety and Environment Association (PMSEA) award (Best Mining Forest Program)  held recently  in Baguio City.

It also received a recognition award “for achieving more than one million man-hour with zero lost time accident.”  Chito Gozar, vice presient for communication and external affairs, Norman Bradley, senior vice president, Brenan Lang, operations manager for Didipio operations and Lucita Exconde, OceanaGold community relations manager received the  award.

OceanaGold was also the winner in the DENR-Mine and Geosciences Bureau “ Best Mining Forest ”  contest in 2009.

“We will continue to carry out our reforestation, forest protection and other environmental and livelihood programs, as well as in education and health that will benefit not only the residents in Didipio where our mine site is located, but also those in the nearby communities,” Gozar said.