BUSINESS WORLD Vol. XIX, No. 85
Tuesday, November 22, 2005 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
The Nation
Lafayette ban stays pending compliance to bureau’s directive
The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) office in Region 5 has effectively formalized the stoppage in the operations of Lafayette Mining Ltd. in Rapu-Rapu, Albay after suspending the company’s wastewater discharge permit and its chemical control order following the recent mine spill at the Australian firm’s gold plant.
The permit suspension order directs Lafayette to "suspend any use of cyanide in any processing in the project" and prevented it from discharging tailings from the project.
The order says the suspensions are in effect until such time as the EMB finds that the tailings management and disposal system are capable of containing the tailings and that the cyanide detoxification plant is capable of reducing cyanide levels.
A Lafayette official confirmed receipt of the permit suspension order, saying the company saw "no issue as this is what we have been working through with the EMB to resolve quickly."
He did not, however, indicate a time line within which it would be able to comply with the EMB order, and did not say how it would affect the roughly 500 personnel who work for the plant.
Reynulfo Juan, Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Bicol regional director, said the suspension of the permits will temporarily disallow Lafayette’s use of its tailings ponds and its use of the chemical cyanide in its operations.
He explained this will necessarily affect Lafayette’s operations with its base metals plant because the same equipment will be affected and the same chemicals will be used as well.
"So titigil ang lahat ng operations nila [they will have to stop all operations]," Mr. Juan said, "because they will still use the same system even with the base metals plant."
Lafayette, in a statement earlier, said it had commenced the commissioning phase of its base metals flotation treatment plant at the Rapu-Rapu project in Albay. This meant the decommissioning of its gold plant.
"Changeover to base metals production will see the curtailment of gold production from the oxide resource. Significantly, during operations it has been identified that more gold oxide resource exists than was originally modeled and this will be scheduled for processing at the end of the base metal production," Lafayette had said.
In the permit suspension orders, the EMB said Lafayette was found to have violated its wastewater discharge permit which specified that no overflows would be discharged from its pond. A discharged of effluent which is not at a par to DENR standards is a ground for a revocation of the permit.
The order also stated that Lafayette was also found to have violated the chemical control order conditions which stipulated that no cyanide could be discharged to the environment without prior approval from the department.
The MGB has asked Lafayette also to revise the rehabilitation plan it has submitted to the bureau two days after the mine spill incident.
The Rapu-Rapu Polymetallic project is one of the government’s flagship mining projects with the recent revitalization of the mining industry. It is one of the 23 priority mining projects and has one of the largest foreign capital infusions among the 23.
As the first foreign-funded mining project in 30 years, the Rapu-Rapu project is expected to boost the government’s planned revitalization of the local mining industry and invite more foreign investors into the sector. -- Beverly T. Natividad
Monday, November 21, 2005
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Mining in Rapu-rapu, Albay
Mine spill no accident, workers tell probe team
First posted 10:27pm (Mla time) Nov 15, 2005
By Blanche Rivera
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on Page Page A17 of the November 16, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
AN INDEPENDENT TEAM INVESTIGATING the spill of wastes from the Lafayette Philippines Inc.’s mining site in Rapu-Rapu, Albay received testimony from the mining firm’s workers that the spill was not an accident.
Workers of Lafayette told the team that they were ordered to release the mine waste from the tailings pond into the sea, disputing an official report that the Oct. 31 mine spill was an accident.
The fact-finding mission, led by the Center for Environmental Concerns (CEC), yesterday announced it had gathered testimony from more than seven workers who claimed they were instructed to redirect the pipes from the tailings ponds to the creeks, which lead to the Albay Gulf.
“Contrary to reports, Lafayette Philippine’s tailings dam was not the site of an accident last Oct. 31 that caused cyanide leakage, fish kills and health problems,” CEC’s Januar Ong, leader of the fact-finding team, said in a press conference in Quezon City yesterday.
“There was no damage to the dam. Testimonies reveal that mine tailings were released from the main tailings dam to a smaller overfill dam which caused the leakage. This is the truth that the mining company is deliberately concealing in an effort to shield itself from its culpability in the disaster,” he said.
Ong showed a video of a worker in the tailings dam. The worker was drawing the location of the tailings ponds and the pipes that supposedly channeled the mine waste and effluent to the sea instead of the polishing pond.
The polishing pond would direct the effluent to the processing station where the water would be recycled.
Ong said the workers refused to be identified but they admitted that one Saturday before the Oct. 31 mine spill, they were told to bring down the pipes so that these would lead directly to the sea.
“They knew that their dam could not hold the water during heavy rains, so instead of having the dam break, they directed the mine waste to the sea,” Fr. Felino Bugauisan, a member of Sagip Isla, said.
The Mines and Geosciences Bureau, however, disputed the CEC’s claim, saying there were no structures or pipes that could be moved to redirect the flow of tailings or effluents.
Reynulfo Juan, MGB regional director, said the workers’ claim that they had to channel the pipes from the tailings ponds to the sea was nearly impossible because the pipes were very heavy structures that could not be easily moved.
“That’s not something they can do in just a matter of days,” Juan said in an interview at the MGB central office in Quezon City.
Michael Cabalda, MGB mining and environmental safety chief, said Lafayette would need an entire pipeline system to do what the workers claimed they were instructed to do during the heavy downpour that led to the overflow of the tailings pond.
The MGB showed photos of Lafayette’s system, which included a main tailings pond, a lower tailings pond, two settlings ponds and a polishing pond. These structures show the route of the mine tailings from the detoxification plant.
First posted 10:27pm (Mla time) Nov 15, 2005
By Blanche Rivera
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on Page Page A17 of the November 16, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
AN INDEPENDENT TEAM INVESTIGATING the spill of wastes from the Lafayette Philippines Inc.’s mining site in Rapu-Rapu, Albay received testimony from the mining firm’s workers that the spill was not an accident.
Workers of Lafayette told the team that they were ordered to release the mine waste from the tailings pond into the sea, disputing an official report that the Oct. 31 mine spill was an accident.
The fact-finding mission, led by the Center for Environmental Concerns (CEC), yesterday announced it had gathered testimony from more than seven workers who claimed they were instructed to redirect the pipes from the tailings ponds to the creeks, which lead to the Albay Gulf.
“Contrary to reports, Lafayette Philippine’s tailings dam was not the site of an accident last Oct. 31 that caused cyanide leakage, fish kills and health problems,” CEC’s Januar Ong, leader of the fact-finding team, said in a press conference in Quezon City yesterday.
“There was no damage to the dam. Testimonies reveal that mine tailings were released from the main tailings dam to a smaller overfill dam which caused the leakage. This is the truth that the mining company is deliberately concealing in an effort to shield itself from its culpability in the disaster,” he said.
Ong showed a video of a worker in the tailings dam. The worker was drawing the location of the tailings ponds and the pipes that supposedly channeled the mine waste and effluent to the sea instead of the polishing pond.
The polishing pond would direct the effluent to the processing station where the water would be recycled.
Ong said the workers refused to be identified but they admitted that one Saturday before the Oct. 31 mine spill, they were told to bring down the pipes so that these would lead directly to the sea.
“They knew that their dam could not hold the water during heavy rains, so instead of having the dam break, they directed the mine waste to the sea,” Fr. Felino Bugauisan, a member of Sagip Isla, said.
The Mines and Geosciences Bureau, however, disputed the CEC’s claim, saying there were no structures or pipes that could be moved to redirect the flow of tailings or effluents.
Reynulfo Juan, MGB regional director, said the workers’ claim that they had to channel the pipes from the tailings ponds to the sea was nearly impossible because the pipes were very heavy structures that could not be easily moved.
“That’s not something they can do in just a matter of days,” Juan said in an interview at the MGB central office in Quezon City.
Michael Cabalda, MGB mining and environmental safety chief, said Lafayette would need an entire pipeline system to do what the workers claimed they were instructed to do during the heavy downpour that led to the overflow of the tailings pond.
The MGB showed photos of Lafayette’s system, which included a main tailings pond, a lower tailings pond, two settlings ponds and a polishing pond. These structures show the route of the mine tailings from the detoxification plant.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)