3 more years seen in bid to make tailings pond safe

A WORKER of Philex Mining Corp. keeps watch over the tailings pond, which was repaired after it leaked in August 2012 and spilled mine waste down Benguet waterways. EV ESPIRITU/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

BAGUIO CITY—It would take two to three more years to stabilize the tailings pond of Philex Mining Corp., which breached and caused last year’s environmental accident in Benguet province, a company official said.

Feliciano Diso, Philex community relations manager, said that while the discharge from Philex’s Tailings Storage Facility No. 3 had been stopped, the company needed more time to fill the void in the facility.

Diso, in a news conference on Friday, said this period was part of a new decommissioning program for the tailings pond of Philex’s Padcal mine, which straddles the towns of Itogon and Tuba.

The cavity at storage facility No. 3 was opened when the dam breached on Aug. 1, 2012, at the height of heavy rains dumped by Typhoons “Ferdie” and “Gener,” and spilled 20 million metric tons of mine wastes into Balog Creek and Agno River.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) suspended the operation of the Padcal mine from August 2012 to March this year, as Philex conducted a cleanup. The MGB also fined Philex more than P1 billion for the environmental disaster.

The MGB lifted the ban in March after the company convinced the bureau that the void at storage facility No. 3 must be filled with fresh tailings as part of its rehabilitation. It gave Philex a temporary permit to operate for four months until July but the company appealed for an extension, as it failed to finish filling the void.

Felizardo Gacad, mine safety and environment division chief of the MGB in the Cordillera region, said they allowed Philex to continue operating, as the void posed a danger to the stability of the dam.

Gacad said the MGB did not give Philex a specific period to finish the rehabilitation but the agency was required to monitor and evaluate its progress.

Diso said they were able to fill the void with 5.8 million MT of tailings since Padcal started operating in March 2013.

He said the firm has finished the construction of a new spillway, with one chute already functioning. The spillway, he said, empties to Maligaboy Creek, a tributary of Balog Creek.

“We are strictly monitoring the effluents and based on the latest tests, their toxicity level was way below [the allowable limit],” Diso said.

He said the cleanup at sections of Agno River, where mine tailings may have reached after the breach last year, had been delayed because the firm was still waiting for clearance from the National Power Corp. (Napocor).

Agno River feeds the reservoir of the San Roque multipurpose dam in San Manuel town in Pangasinan province.

“We need an area clearance from the Napocor to allow us to install our vacuum pumps for the Agno cleanup,” he said. Kimberlie Quitasol, Inquirer Northern Luzon