Surigao Norte execs back China mine firm

CLAVER, Surigao del Norte, Philippines—Ivonnie Dumadag, provincial environment management officer in charge, said the ore had to be shipped out because merely transferring it to other areas in the mine site “will just lead to further siltation.”

Allowing the ore to be shipped out, said Dumadag, was the “best option.”

Dumadag said the provincial government had suggested that income from the sale of the ore “be used in the rehabilitation efforts of the company.”

Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), however, has no record whether income from the ore—or at least part of it—went to rehabilitation. Jacqueline Mel de Leon, Shenzhou Mining Group Corp. (SMGC) corporate secretary, has not responded to Inquirer when asked to comment on the matter.

Other methods

A Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) insider who spoke to Inquirer said there are other methods to prevent the stockpiled ore from being washed out during the rainy season.

One of these, the DENR officer said, is to cover the stockpiles with waterproof canvass to prevent the rain from washing the ore away to the nearest water body.

This method was effectively proven, the DENR officer said, in Nonoc Island off Surigao City, when the operations of Shuley Mine Inc. (SMI) were suspended in 2011 following a tax dispute between the mine’s mineral production sharing agreement (MPSA) holder and the government.

SMI was allowed to operate again in October last year, or over a year after the suspension, and was able to successfully recover ore stockpiled for months.

“If the ore would be immediately shipped out, it’s like rewarding the offending mining company,” said the source.

TRO

SMGC’s environmental violations and its controversial shipment became the basis of a court order that expelled the company from its mine site recently.

A regional trial court in Cantilan, Surigao del Sur, ordered SMGC to vacate its mine site in a temporary restraining order (TRO) released on July 15.

The TRO stems from the civil case filed by the Claver Mineral Development Corp. (CMDC), the original holder of the MPSA over the mine site, which signed an operating agreement with SMGC in return for five percent in royalty.

In the complaint, CMDC said it wants to terminate its partnership agreement with SMGC because of environmental violations and alleged defiance of the suspension order issued by MGB.

SMGC’s corporate secretary, De Leon, denied that her company had defied the suspension order. The shipment of ore in March, she said, is part of rehabilitation efforts “as approved by MGB.”

The court said it found that SMGC violated “environmental laws, rules and regulation.”

“Defendant’s defense that the shipment of ore is part of the rehabilitation program… is not tenable,” said the court decision.

“While the MGB directive allowed defendant to ship out 200,000 wet metric tons (WMT) of ore stockpile, there is no showing that is part of the alleged rehabilitation program,” Judge Rufo Naragas said in his three-page order, a copy of which was obtained by Inquirer.

SMGC has filed a motion for reconsideration and a petition for certiorari at the Court of Appeals in Cagayan de Oro City. A hearing at the Cantilan court is set late next month.

House probe

Surigao del Norte Rep. Guillermo Romarate Jr. (second district) has demanded a House investigation of SMGC’s mining practices, including other allegations that it had been remiss in paying royalty to the Mamanwa tribe that holds an ancestral domain title over its mine site.

Early this month, Romarate filed House Resolution No. 361 that directed the House committees on natural resources, indigenous people and labor and employment to investigate SMGC’s alleged nonpayment of national and local taxes and royalty to the Mamanwa community.

The lawmaker also wants the company investigated for alleged unfair labor practices.

Explain

“It is clear that this mining company violated not only environmental laws but likewise appropriate tax and labor laws and the Ipra (Indigenous Peoples Rights Act). The charges against [SMGC] are piling up and yet it keeps on skirting them,” Romarate said in an e-mail statement.

“Its directors should be made to explain and Congress should conduct an ocular inspection as soon as possible,” he said.

According to its website, SMGC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Shenzhou International Holdings Limited, founded in 2001 by Chinese national Lin Wei Zhao. The company also has mining projects in the provinces of Leyte and Dinagat Islands. Danilo V. Adorador III, Inquirer Mindanao