South African mine venture faces rough sailing

MANKAYAN, Benguet—A South African mine venture has started validating the mineral reserves of a property leased to Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corp. (LCMC) before undertaking a $340-million operation in this mining town.

But Gold Fields Ltd. suspended work in the area containing the Far Southeast copper deposit barely three weeks after starting it, in deference to objections raised by the local community.

On Jan. 23, Kankanaey families from Barangay Tabio here and neighboring villages picketed the operation site.

The families complained that Gold Fields failed to secure their consent as required by the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (Ipra).

According to the Lepanto website, “the Far Southeast ore body is a gold-rich porphyry copper deposit [which is] … longitudinally bell-shaped and deep seated (about 900-meter elevation and extending down to a still undetermined depth below sea level).”

“At minus 100 meter elevation, it is approximately 1,000 meters long, 500 meters at its widest section,” the company said.

It said  LCMC and Galactic Resources Ltd. organized Far Southeast Gold Resources Inc. (FSEGRI) in 1987 as a joint venture company to develop the copper deposit.

In a statement, Gold Fields said it was confirming data supplied by LCMC because it has an 18-month option agreement to invest in the Far Southeast project. The agreement expires in March this year.

It said Gold Fields is also awaiting the issuance of a financial and/or technical assistance agreement for the project.

“We are not yet operating and we are not yet exploring … We would like to check if the minerals are present [beneath the Far Southeast property] and if they can be mined. If we are able to get the data, that is when we are going to buy [into the project],” said Louis Pawid, Baguio regional manager of Gold Fields.

He said the Far Southeast project is operating through a mineral production sharing agreement that was issued in 1990. The FSEGRI explored Barangay Tabio but the company had no budget or the technology to pursue the project any further until Gold Fields came into play, he said.

He said Gold Fields would secure the free, prior and informed consent of the people in the area once it buys into the project.

Jerome Campos, a resident of Sitio Madaymen in Barangay Tabio, said families and land claimants were polarized over Gold Fields presence at the Lepanto mine site.

Gold Fields said it had notified and had acquired the permission of the families who had opposed the project.

Pawid said they had signed a memorandum of understanding with the families, and a permit had been granted to them by the head of Barangay Tabio.

However, lawyer Richard Kilaan, lead counsel of the opposing residents, said his clients wanted to seek a temporary restraining order and injunction from a local court “because they are drilling on ancestral domain.”

“You cannot blame the people if they are opposed to the operation because they lived through a history of environmental destruction brought about by mining,” Kilaan said. Desiree Caluza, Inquirer Northern Luzon