Friday, August 12, 2005
DOE allows mine in Dalaguete to resume operations after repairs
The Department of Energy (DOE) has allowed a coal mine in Dalaguete town to operate its adit after the mining company completed repairs in the area.
DOE Visayas Assistant Director Eduardo Cañete said, though, that Ibalong Resources and Development Corp.’s other underground operations, located in a site called Area 24, remain suspended.
Cañete said the coal mining company has fully complied with DOE’s requirements for Adit 202, where a miner died late last month.
In another development, about 200 fisherfolk have received compensation from the contractor of the oil exploration activities in Tañon Strait, DOE Visayas Director Antonio Labios said.
But he said a multi-agency team is still verifying other fishers, nearly 800 of them, who are claiming compensation after their payaws - fish attracting devices - were allegedly damaged by the boat of a Japanese exploration company.
Potential income
Ibalong, for its part, has probably lost about a million pesos in potential income, Cañete of DOE Visayas said. Before the suspension of operations, the firm produced an average of 50 tons a day. The current price of coal stands at P2,000 per ton.
The DOE suspension has been in effect for about 10 days, after miner Luciano Villacorta died when a portion of the ceiling of the adit fell and buried him.
His two companions, who were with him to repair wooden posts that support the walls and ceiling of the adit, were trapped in another shaft but were later rescued by other mine personnel.
On July 29, the DOE Visayas ordered Ibalong to stop coal extraction and development activities, and to concentrate on repairing the adit.
Cañete told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday that the mining company has completed repair work on the adit, and cleared the escape route.
Still suspended
But the mine’s other underground operations found in Area 24 remain suspended because repair work on the shaft has yet to be completed.
“They (Ibalong) will report to us once they are done and then we will conduct an assessment. Only then can we make recommendations,” he said.
As to the compensation of fisherfolk, Labios said payment was facilitated by the office of Rep. Antonio Yapha Jr. (Cebu, 3rd district).
He said the multi-agency team, organized by DOE, needs to find out which claims are valid.
Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd. (Japex) conducted seismic surveys in the Tañon Strait, a protected area, to determine the presence of oil deposits in the area.
Japex, he said, listed every payaw hit during the exploration activity and came up with fewer than 200.
“But almost a thousand claimed compensation,” he said. (LAP)
(August 12, 2005 issue)
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