CCC earmarks P115M for livelihood program

Carmen Copper Corporation (CCC) earmarks P115 million for a five-year livelihood program for the neighboring communities in Toledo City.

In compliance to the Social Development and Management Program (SDMP), CCC’s livelihood program intends to provide different skills training and entrepreneurial programs as well as to introduce other income generating opportunities for residents in the nearby communities.

CCC vice president and resident manager Rodrigo C. Cal said the company will re-activate the shoe making industry especially in Barangay Don Andres Soriano (DAS), which was started by the Atlas Mining before it declared closure years back.

CCC will also organize different cooperatives to implement the company's livelihood program, which will include other industries, such as livestock broiler production, farming, fishing, swine raising, waste-recycling production, among others.

For the shoe making industry alone, CCC commits to purchase over a thousand pairs of steel shoes in a year, for the cost of P1000 each. Thereby, automatically providing P1 million revenue for the shoemakers.

The P115 million seed funds that the company will allocate in the next five years will enable small or newly organized cooperatives to grow, and become self-sustaining organizations in the future, Cal said.

Priority communities that will benefit from the funds include four Barangays namely; Biga, DAS, Luay and Media Once.

Before the closure of the Atlas Mining, there were a total of 14 cooperatives formed. Now, these cooperatives have merged into one group, Cal said.

Now, that CCC is about to start its full commercial operation by late next year, Cal said the company is going to form new cooperatives that are envisioned to become self-sustaining in the next few years.

CCC will start a series of skills training activities this year and will run until 2013, he said.

About to complete its US$248 million rehabilitation and testing program, Cal said the copper mining plant is ready to ship 10 thousand tons of copper concentrate to a Swiss copper buyer—Marc Rich International.

The initial 10 thousand tons of copper concentrate that will be exported by CCC next month, which translates to an estimated revenue of US$1.8 million, he said.

At this point, the 3,000 hectare's copper mining in Toledo City is employing 5,800 to complete the two phases of rehabilitation, which is expected to be finished by November of 2009.

Number of workers will decrease to about four thousand, once the mining operation will go into full commercial operation.

CCC, formerly known as Atlas Mining has a capacity to produce 42,000 tons of copper concentrate a day. Phase 1 of the rehab would allow the plant to produce at least 20,000 tons a day.

CCC is expected to provide an average of over 3,000 jobs to Toledo City and neighboring towns. In the next 12 years, it is seen to generate substantial foreign exchange earnings of up to US$3 billion.

CCC was able to get a $100 million loan from the Deutsch Bank while a syndicate of foreign banks called Crescent Asian Special Opportunities Portfolio (CASOP) put up an additional US$33 million in capitalization.