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Monday, March 14, 2005
Mining company to employ open pit mining
By Bong S. Sarmiento
KORONADAL CITY -- Open pit method will be employed at the large mining site straddling the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Davao del Sur, according to an Australian firm that has a stake at the venture.
Tony Robbins, Indophil Resources NL managing director, said Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) would have no other recourse, for now, but to resort to open pit mining to extract gold and copper deposits in the area once it will go full blast operation by 2009.
Indophil, which is listed at the Australian Stock Exchange, owns 40 percent equity at SMI, with the other 60 percent by the Tampakan Group of Companies.
"Current studies point to an open pit mine [method] to produce an estimated 140,000 tons of copper per annum and 145,000 ounces of gold per annum," Robbins said in a 25-page presentation obtained by this paper.
Robbins made the presentation two weeks ago to a number of analysts and key shareholders of Indophil on the status of the Tampakan copper and gold project in Australia.
He described the Tampakan project as the largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits in Southeast Asia, with 7.7 million tons and 10.1 million ounces, respectively, of resources.
Robbins, however, said that changes in the mining method could "occur," stressing: "Actual future events may vary materially from the forward-looking statement and the assumptions on which the forward-looking statement is based."
Groups backed by the local Catholic Church opposing the project have repeatedly warned that the proponents would employ open pit mining, a situation, they say, will cause irreparable damage to the environment.
Eliezer Billanes, chair of the Coalition of Anti-Mining Movements in South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and Maguindanao, said that open pit mining method would turn the mountains upside down.
"An environmental catastrophe looms over our head and the future generation if such [open pit] method will be employed by the firm," Billanes said.
While SMI's 2004 annual report indicated they are contemplating on resorting to open pit method or tunnel mining or a combination of both, Robbin's latest statement on open pit mining for now puts to rest the information earlier propounded by company officials that they are eyeing several methods.
Once full blast mining operations start by 2009, Robbins said that 3,500 people will be hired, mostly locals to do the hard labor.
For Bisaya stories from General Santos.Click here. (This section is updated every Monday)
(March 14, 2005 issue)
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