Toledo mining firm suspends operations as search for 6 missing in landslide continues

A mining company in Toledo City on Tuesday (Dec. 22) said it was continuing efforts to locate six persons missing in a landslide in its area of operations that killed four workers and suspending activities in the site for the safety of its employees.

“The company regrets to inform that this incident has claimed four lives,” said a statement sent to INQUIRER.net by Carmen Copper Corp. (CCC).

“The company continues its efforts to locate six more persons missing,” the statement said.

“As of this time, we are in close coordination and communication with the affected immediate families and will continue to extend the needed support and assistance,” CCC said.

“We humbly ask the general public to exercise caution and responsibility in distributing information out of respect for the affected families,” it said.

“We would like to extend our utmost gratitude to private groups and the Toledo City government emergency response team for extending valuable assistance in our search and rescue operations,” said the mining firm.

It said it was in “close coordination and communication with concerned government agencies as we continue to conduct all necessary actions to assess and address the situation.”

“Meanwhile, we have suspended all activities in the mining operations area to ensure the safety of our employees and contractors,” the company said.

Torrential rains were believed to have led to the landslide on Monday (Dec. 21).

The Carmen site has an area of 1,674 hectares.

In an earlier statement, CCC said the landslide “was traceable to the incessant rains for the past several months.”

It was “aggravated by Tropical Depression Vicky which hit parts of the Visayas, including Toledo City, last Friday, Dec. 18, 2020,” the statement added.

Prior to the landslide, CCC operations have been questioned by locals.

In 2019, residents of a village in Toledo, Biga, wrote to Mayor Marjorie Perales asking for the transfer of CCC operations to another location, blaming the mining site for respiratory diseases among villagers.

They also reported that some of the residents’ houses have suffered cracks on floors and walls that the villagers attributed to vibrations from CCC operations. With Karl Ocampo

EDV/TSB