NGOs question disbursement of Placer Dome $13-M rehab fund

Where have all the money gone?

This was the question posed by anti-mining advocates on $13-million "rehabilitation fund" supposedly left by Canadian mining company Placer Dome Inc. (PDI) for Marinduque.

Mining Watch Canada, Kalikasan-PNE, and the Marinduque Council for Environmental Concerns (MACEC) said it was not clear whether the fund remains intact or has already been disbursed.

The non-government organizations (NGOs) raised fear that the money had just vanished following reports that the fund had been misused by certain people or government officials.

Catherine Coumans, research coordinator of Mining Watch Canada, said she "accidentally" learned about the $13-million rehab fund from a Canadian government official during the course of monitoring the activities of Canadian mining companies abroad.

Coumans added that the $13-million fund was supposedly deposited in an escrow account in New York City and will only be released through the URS, an international engineering consulting firm.

"We have raised the matter to Placer Dome during its annual meeting but the company said they are already "hands off’ with the money and that the issue was already between F Holdings and the URS," she said.

Keith Ferguson, vice president for safety and sustainability of PDI, said in an e-mail that the mining company deposited "sufficient funds" in the bank account of an escrow holder to remediate the remaining tailing in levee banks, spill over, and patches along the Boac River."

Ferguson’s e-mail, however, did not mention whether the money has been spent.

The money was believed to have been deposited in 1996, when PDI left Marinduque.

"The money was an exit ticket for the PDI to get out of Marinduque," Coumans said.

Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan-PNE, urged for transparency in the disbursement of the fund for the actual rehabilitation of the Marcopper mine in Marinduque. — Katherine Adraneda