Groups launch fresh fight vs $5.9-B mining project in South Cotabato

OPPOSITION Critics of the mining project in Tampakan, South Cotabato, brave the heat to file a case on Friday in Koronadal City challenging the 12-year extension granted to its opponent. --BONG S. SARMIENTO

KORONADAL CITY—Thousands of people marched towards a local court here on Friday to file a petition challenging the 12-year extension granted to the controversial mining project in Tampakan town, South Cotabato, which hosts the largest undeveloped copper and gold minefield in Southeast Asia.

Bishop Cerilo Casicas of the Diocese of Marbel led the petition for certiorari against the extended Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) granted by the government to Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) in 2016.

The SMI operates the $5.9-billion Tampakan project, which will reportedly start commercial production in 2026 employing open-pit mining, a method currently banned by the provincial government’s environment code.

FTAA No. 002-95-XI was originally granted to Australian firm Western Mining Corp. (WMC) on March 22, 1995. SMI acquired the FTAA from WMC in 2001 with the approval of then Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez.

The FTAA has a lifespan of 25 years and can be renewed for the same period.

Threats

The 12-year extension was granted in 2016, four years before the FTAA’s expiry, by Leo Jasareno, then director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), an agency under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), on June 8, 2016 “by authority of the secretary.”

The prelate said they are opposing the Tampakan project as it “threatens to devastate the local ecosystem, poses health risks to the people, and could lead to the potential displacement and loss of farming and fishing livelihoods across three provinces in Mindanao.”

The SMI plans to dig up to 800 meters deep in an area measuring 2.5 kilometers wide and 3 km long to excavate the massive gold and copper deposits.

The digging’s depth is equivalent to a 178-storey luxury condo, and the total excavation pit is 75,000 hectares, which is at least four times the land area of Quezon City.

Based on a company study, this massive earthmoving activity could potentially yield an average of 375,000 metric tons of copper and 360,000 ounces of gold in concentrate annually throughout the estimated 17-year mine life.

The 12-year extension, which was granted at the twilight of the term of President Benigno Aquino III, was known to the public only in January 2020.

No consultations

“The FTAA for the Tampakan project had expired. The MGB has no power to extend it because that rests on the President. If the company wants to continue, they should start another consultation,” Casicas told the crowd at the parish gymnasium here before they started marching to the Regional Trial Court.

“The Tampakan FTAA should not have been extended without full presidential oversight and prior consultation and consent from our affected communities,” he said in a separate statement.

Ryan Roset, senior legal fellow of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center which serves as petitioners’ counsel, said the extension “did not follow the proper process.”