Chamber of Mines backs Rapu-Rapu spill probe

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (CMP) expressed full support for the independent audit committee it jointly commissioned with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to conduct an inquiry into the spill at the polymettalic project of Lafayette Mining Philippines on Rapu-Rapu Island in Albay.

"The unfortunate spill in Rapu-Rapu is no Marcopper and the incident should never happen again," Artemio Disini, CMP chairman said in a press briefing yesterday.

The CMP’s show of support for the independent audit committee is apparently intended to douse old fears about irresponsible mining activities before the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Mining Act of 1995 in a landmark ruling in December 2004.

The CMP move is also seen to protect its recent gains with the favorable Supreme Court ruling that has led to a resurgence of foreign investment in the local mining industry.

Disini said the CMP is taking steps to ensure that all remedial measures are being carried out, particularly on the safety and structural capability of Lafayette’s tailing dams.

"The incident happened during a relatively dry season. This should serve as a wake-up call for all mining companies, especially foreign mining companies. We, however, would like to view this incident as one that also reaffirms the enthusiasm of foreign mining companies to pursue mining projects in the country," he said.

The team is composed of engineer Marcelo Bolaño, a consultant of Benguet Corp.; Dr. Carlo Primo David of the University of the Philippines National Institute for Geological Sciences; Jake Foronda, chairman of the Professional Regulation Commission’s Board of Examiners for Metallurgy; and engineer Joselito Bacani, chairman of the CMP’s committee of environment.

The team, which was dispatched yesterday, will, among other things, assess whether Lafayatte’s tailing dams adhered to proper engineering design and standards allowing them to withstand heavy rainfall in the next 500 years, which is an internationally accepted standard.

Compared to the Marcopper mine spill in Marinduque which saw five cubic meters of untreated mine tailings spilling from the tailing dams into critical water tributaries such as the marine resource-rich Boac River, Disini said the Rapu-Rapu spill reached only one cubic meter but contained cyanide (used for gold processing) with a concentration of below .5 part per million — still within DENR standards.

Leonardo Josef, Lafayette general manager for administration, said that unlike in Marcopper where mine tailings spilled into waterways, the spill in Rapu-Rapu involved mostly rainwater and mine slurry that breached the tailing dams in two separate incidents due to heavy downpour.

The company has since raised the dams’ height by an additional four meters.

Roger Corpus, Lafayette general manager for operations, said the company has completed 80 percent of the six conditions imposed by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau for it to be able to resume its operations.

These include ensuring dam integrity, submission of an accountability report, no discharge of effluents above DENR standards, containment of the tailing dams, rehabilitation of creeks and coastal areas, compensation of affected fishermen, and improvement of the efficiency of the detoxification circuit. — With Katherine Adraneda