MANKAYAN, Benguet—Amid the squealing of sacrificial pigs and the beating of gongs, Gold Fields on Thursday opened what it called its most important drilling project in Barangay Tabio here in a prelude to what could be the biggest mining investment in the Cordillera in decades.
Garry Ames, Gold Fields site manager for the company’s Far Southeast project, said the surface drilling in Tabio would gauge the structure and construction of the rock above the Far Southeast deposit, reportedly one of the richest and biggest gold and copper deposits in the country.
Although the deposit was discovered in the 1990s, it is only now that a mining company with technical know-how and financial capability gained enough interest to explore it.
“This is a very important drilling,” said Ames of the activity in Tabio, the third in the town. He said the drilling would go as deep as 2 kilometers and would take about eight months.
A company report said if the results of three other drillings become positive and the South African-based mining company could get the approval of leaders of indigenous peoples in the town, Gold Fields would formally partner with Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. for the venture in March 2012.
It said Gold Fields was expected to invest $340 million to develop the Far Southeast deposit. The company made a second downpayment of
$66-million for an option agreement to acquire a
60-percent interest in the project.
A Gold Fields statement said the nonrefundable downpayment of $66 million to Liberty Express Assets, a private holding company, was the second in a series of three payments. The first payment of $54 million was made with the signing of the option agreement in September 2010.
“Should Gold Fields decide to proceed with the acquisition of the 60-percent interest in [the Far Southeast deposit], the final payment of $220 million is expected to be made during the first half of 2012,” it said.
But winning the hearts and minds of indigenous peoples of Mankayan is another matter.
Olive Paleng, a Kankanaey elder and vice president of the Tabio Indigenous Peoples Organization (Taipo), said they negotiated with Gold Fields representatives for their fair share in the project.
Workers for the drilling project, for example, would have to come from the village. Paleng said Gold Fields also promised livelihood and agricultural investments for them.
Not everyone, however, was as enthusiastic as Taipo members.
The drilling in the village of Paco was suspended on
Dec. 17 by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) because of a land conflict.
The heirs of two old families in Paco filed a complaint against Gold Fields, Indodrill (the drilling company) and Paco barangay officials because they claimed they were not informed of the activity.
A Gold Fields source, who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak on the subject, said the area was part of a mineral production sharing agreement that was issued before the passage of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act, which means that the NCIP has no jurisdiction over the area.
But the source said the parties involved in the conflict decided to adhere to NCIP rules and seek community consent for the project.
Other than Tabio and Paco, Gold Fields is also conducting due diligence drilling in the villages of Cabiten and Bulalacao here.
Ames said safety was their company’s main concern. “If we cannot mine safely, we might as well not mine at all,” he said. Frank Cimatu,
Inquirer Northern Luzon