Hard times hit Benguet mining firms

ITOGON, Benguet — Two mining giants – Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. in Mankayan town and the Australian-owned Anvil Mining Ventures in Itogon town – have begun exploring tough measures, including work rotation and downscaling of operations, to survive the global economic slowdown.

Lepanto, which has been operating in mineral rich Mankayan town in Northern Benguet for 72 years, has implemented a work-rotation scheme for its 1,400 surface and underground workers.

“Otherwise, our option would be to retrench workers,” explained Lepanto resident manager Magellan Bagayao.

Workers, however, have contested the scheme saying it violates their collective bargaining agreement.

In Itogon town, Anvil-Philippines has suspended its exploration work in Poblacion and Ampucao to stem losses.

Anvil has a lease agreement with the Itogon Suyoc Mines Inc., a commercial mining firm that shut down in the mid-1990s.

In a letter to Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan, Itogon Mayor Mario Godio and barangay officials, Anvil’s project resource geologist Ivor Jones said there is a need to suspend the firm’s more than a year-old exploration activities because of the falling global prices of copper. But he said the firm would resume exploration activities as well as re-hire 20 retrenched workers as soon as the situation improves.

Jones, in his letter, stressed the firm’s unhampered social and development commitments in the towns where it operates.