Philex’s Padcal mine cleared to operate #PX The Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB) has formally lifted its cease-and-desist order against Philex Mining Corp., finally allowing the company to resume normal operation of its Padcal copper-gold mine in Tuba and Itogon, Benguet. The PAB, through the Baguio City-based regional office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources - Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB), issued the Formal Lifting Order dated June 9 in favor of Philex. The EMB serves as the secretariat of the PAB, a quasi-judicial body in charge of pollution-related cases involving private and public institutions. The PAB cited in its two-page resolution a report by the DENR-EMB in the Cordillera Administrative Region indicating Philex’s compliance to the urgent remediation measures at the Tailings Storage Facility No. 3 (TSF3) of its Padcal mine. Michael Toledo, senior vice president for Corporate Affairs at Philex Mining, welcomed the decision. He said the company will continue to work further as a responsible miner by “marching on with its environmental-stewardship advocacy through the various forestation and reforestation activities, as well as the rehabilitation of TSF3, including the completion of an open spillway.” The TSF3 in Itogon accidentally discharged nontoxic water and sediment onto the Balog Creek, a tributary of the Agno River, on August 1, 2012, following the unprecedented rainfall brought about by two successive typhoons. Philex Mining had voluntarily suspended operations immediately, resuming production only starting on March 8, 2013, based on a four-month temporary lifting order issued by the government, which was later extended indefinitely. The company has since abided by government requirements for the resumption of its operations at Padcal, including payments of P188.6 million as environmental obligation to the PAB in relation to Republic Act 9275, otherwise known as the Clean Water Act, on June 5; and P1.034 billion to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) on February 18, 2013, as fees over the accidental discharge of sediment for violation under the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. The PAB imposed the said payment after ensuring all the effluent and water samples collected from Balog and Agno on March 14 and 15, 2013 were within the water-quality criteria required by the government. These samples were collected and analyzed by the designated Joint Multipartite Monitoring Team. For its part, the MGB had asked for P1.034 billion in fees while it was studying the pertinent details of TSF3’s remediation. Besides the construction of the P500-million open spillway, which replaces TSF3’s underground drainage system, the urgent remediation measures at Padcal include the filling up with fresh tails of the conical void at the pond left behind by the tailings leak accident, as well as the creation of a beach that would push the accumulated water away from the pond, meant to hold solids, and onto the spillway. TSF3’s third and last chute will be finished in July, making the pond able to accommodate an unusual rainfall of 1,500 millimeters (mm) over a 24-hour period—more than thrice the 455 mm of rain dumped by Typhoon Ondoy in 24 hours in 2009. The pond’s Penstock A, from which water discharges onto the Balog Creek via Tunnel A, had been sealed off with concrete after the accident, while Penstock B, which connects to Tunnel B, will also be sealed off with concrete once the third chute is completed. businessmirror.ph/index.php/en/business/companies/34039-philex-s-padcal-mine-cleared-to-operate
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 00:25:19 +0000
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