ITOGON, Benguet—The country’s first and oldest mining company is rushing the rehabilitation of two tailings ponds here to prevent a potential mine spill, officials said on Friday.
Valeriano Bongalos, resident manager of Benguet Corp.’s Balatoc mine operations, asked town officials and residents of Ampucao, Virac and Poblacion villages to allow engineers to rush work on raising the crest of two tailings storage facilities.
Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan said the tailings dams were almost full and nearing their breaching levels.
But residents had picketed the mine, insisting that they must first be consulted about the rehabilitation project.
Tailings ponds No. 2 and No. 2A were designed to contain 53,879 cubic meters of mine waste, Bongalos said, adding that both facilities would not be able to contain more waste by August at the rate of 300 cubic meters of tailings that are dumped there each day.
Benguet Corp. has undertaken joint-venture deals that allow small-scale mining operators to mine its tunnels.
The company, established in 1903, pioneered modern gold mining operations and was considered the country’s biggest gold producer until the 1980s.
Mario Ymbong, an engineer and company consultant, said Benguet Corp. intended to raise its tailings pond crests to level 775 to contain mine wastes equivalent to eight years of operations.
At present, tailings pond No. 2 is at level 765 while tailings pond No. 2A is at level 770, Ymbong said.
Palangdan said he had consulted various agencies to ensure that no legal issues would obstruct the improvement of the tailings dams. “We want to fix the situation before the rains come. I don’t want a repeat of the Philex accident,” Palangdan said, referring to the August 2012 tailings dam breach of Philex Mining Corp.’s Padcal mine that spilled 20 million metric tons of waste into Balog Creek and Agno River.
Strong rains caused the dam to leak, for which Philex paid more than P1 billion in fines.
At a hearing on Friday, Bongalos announced that Benguet Corp. was prepared to voluntarily stop operations should it fail to convince villagers about the need to increase the height of its tailings ponds.
Benguet Corp. agreed to draw up a memorandum of agreement with affected villages to address the issues and concerns raised by the picketing residents before work on the dams would start.—Reports from Kimberlie Quitasol and Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon