UK mining firm’s permit for Vizcaya exploration project renewed

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has renewed the exploration permit of a British-owned mining firm, which temporarily stopped its government-authorized exploration activities late last month.

More than 100 local residents employed by MTL Philippines Inc., who were  temporarily terminated from work as a result of the stoppage of the operations, are expected to return to work following the renewal of the mining firm’s exploration permit.

MTL Philippines Inc., which has been conducting an exploration project in Barangay Runruno in nearby Quezon town since 2005, was granted another two-year exploration permit by the MGB. The firm’s initial two-year exploration permit expired last July 25.

MGB national director Horacio Ramos signed the foreign firms’ exploration permit the other day, according to engineer Jerrysal Mangaong, MGB director for Cagayan Valley.

Sources here have speculated that the MGB’s delay in issuing the renewal of the exploration permit may have been due to a complaint-letter sent by Gov. Luisa Lloren Cuaresma to then Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes, pinpointing mining activities as one of the causes of the landslides and flashfloods last year.

This was in addition to the previous lobbying of the Catholic Church-led anti-mining groups in the area.

“Like any government agency, MGB of course sent people to the place to investigate the real situation,” a source said.

Earlier, Cuaresma filed a letter-complaint to Reyes on the activities of MTL and sought the revocation of its exploration permit, saying she was “convinced that the conduct of any mining activity would enhance the probability of another massive landslide in Quezon town.”

However, geologists from the MGB’s regional office based in Tuguegarao City, said the cause of last year’s flashfloods and landslides was lack of natural vegetation and the place being a geological hazard, and not due to the ongoing exploration activities.

Mangaoang said that long-time illegal cutting of trees, kaingin farming and dynamite-induced illegal small-scale mining were contributory factors to last year’s flashfloods in Runruno village, which is around two kilometers from this capital town.

Meanwhile, during and immediately before the stop of the mining firm’s operations, barangay officials, supported by more than 1,500 residents of Runruno expressed support for MTL, citing its many development projects and economic assistance to the village in terms of direct employment and other commercial transactions.

Even the municipal government of Quezon under Mayor Aurelio Salunat, a political ally of Cuaresma, had likewise shown its appreciation for what the MTL had done in terms of development projects and scholarships in technical courses for poor but deserving out-of-school youths or barangay residents willing to learn new marketable skills.

MTL executives were bullish about the prospects of gold, copper, molybdenum and other mineral deposits in the area and that they are going to be highly commercial in volume. They expect that in the second phase of the exploration they will be able to determine the commercial viability of their project.

Runruno, about two hours from this capital town, is a traditional mining village with many undocumented small-scale miners using unregulated deadly explosives, which already resulted in the killing of an undetermined number of illegal miners. The provincial government has been calling for a stop to their operations. However,  illegal mining activities only mushroomed.