I was with three other reporters . The purpose of the trip, as JB Baylon, Nickel Asia’s new vice-president for communications told us, was to show us “responsible mining.”
JB, who used to be with Coca-Cola Export said, the reason he took the Nickel Asia job, at the time when the industry is getting a beating from environmentalists, was “ I believe there CAN be responsible mining operations like the Rio Tuba operation, and mining should be nothing less than responsible. “
Briefing us on Nickel Asia’s operations was no less than its president, Jerry Brimo.
Brimo was born into and bred in mining. His father, Henry, founded Philex Mining. Jerry himself headed Philex for the longest time until five years ago, when Manny V. Pangilinan took control of it.
Anyway, Nickel Asia’s Rio Tuba operation is one of its four mining sites. The others are Cagdianao mine in Dinagat Island in the northern tip of Mindanao; Tagamaan mine in Hinatuan island in the northern end of Mindanao; and the Taganito mine in Surigao del Norte, north-east corner of Mindanao.
Nickel Asia is the Philippines largest producer of laterite nickel ore and one of the largest in the world. From 1977, the year Rio Tuba mine started operation to 2010, Nickel Asia has sold a total of 60 million tons of ore up to 2010.
“We export both saprolite and limonite ore to customers in Japan and China. Our customers use our ore for the production of ferronickel and nickel pig iron, both used to produce stainless steel, and for the production of pig iron used for carbon steel,” Brimo said.
Nickel has plenty of uses. It is used in medicine as implant and surgical instruments, household gadgets like spoon, forks, kitchen utensils, sinks. It’s used in transport manufacturing including in airplanes. It’s a vital component in manufacturing plants. It’s used in computer hard discs, CD and DVD moulds.
Life without nickel is unimaginable. And how do you extract nickel. It has to be mined.
Also in Rio Tuba is Coral Bay Nickel Corporation, the country’s first hydrometallurgical nickel processing plant, where a major investor is Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd.
Nickel Asia’s Rio Tuba mine covers all of 990 hectares. As in all mining sites, indigenous communities have been displaced.
Rio Tuba Nickel Mining and Coral Bay Nickel Corp’s Social Development Management program include improving the lives of an estimated 13,000 indigenous people belonging to 24 communities like providing Gawad Kalinga houses and giving them access to an education system suited to their culture. DEPED-accredited Indigenous Learning System classes are held in the community.
Whether the people whose forefathers were in the area, long before big business came, are getting their due share of the gifts of the land is something that we have to find out some other time.
What we were impressed about was the rehabilitation of mined-out areas.
Nickel Asia said their operations manage their environmental projects through Annual Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programs (AEPEPs). “These are prepared and submitted yearly for review to their respective Multi-Partite Mine Monitoring Teams (MMT) and Mine Rehabilitation Fund Committees, and finally for approval to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB)”
Information from Nickel Asia materials says lateritic nickel deposits are shallow (about 20 feet deep) and “their extraction does not require the use of explosives. The environmental impact of our mining operations is therefore limited to ground disturbance that can result in erosion and sedimentation, and dust.”
“The AEPEPs of our operations provide for erosion and sedimentation control primarily through the use of sediment settling ponds, which are regularly maintained…Supplementary measures for rainfall erosion include soil covers, drainage structures to keep surface runoff away from disturbed areas and water velocity reducers. For dust control, windbreaks and water sprays along road networks are being used.
We were brought to an area which they started rehabilitating in 2008. It is now a forest . They purposely planted the area with trees native to the Philippines. There’s another area where they are experimenting planting other species like Tongkat Ali, whose roots are being bruited to be an aphrodisiac.
It is said that the presence of nickel deposits was discovered after the area was cleared by loggers.
In the rehabilitated area, there’s a billboard that proclaims: “Mother nature gives us the minerals; we give her back a forest.”
Or we can say it’s continuing nature’s cycle.
Kalbo na ang mga karamihan na bundok sa Pilipinas. Kasi ang mga NPA na dapat puwede nilang sitahin ang mga illegal loggers ay kasabwat pa. Paano ang mga NPA ngayon parang makipera na rin. Bigyan lang ng pera ng illegal loggers ay hindi na sila gagalawin. Di ba ang mga NPA o kaya rebelde ay sa bundok madalas. Kung tutuusin kaya nilang lipulin ang mga illegal loggers. Pero hindi ginagawa kasi mga corrupt na rin sila.
Level up na ang mga NPA o rebelde ngayon. Kung noon ay may sinusulatan sila para sitahin sa katarantudahan na ginagawa o di magandang asal ng isang tao na kapag nabasa ay magbabago dahil kung hindi magbago ay papatayin ngayon ay hindi na. Kapag may sulatan man sila na tao ay iyon ay ang paghingi ng pera.
Himala na lang ang pag asa kung umasenso o umunlad ang bansang Pilipinas. Sa out of 100 percent baka 1 percent lang ang chance para umasenso o umunlad ang Pilipinas. Lalo lang lalala siguro paglipas ng mga taon.
Mining companies are now more visible. After a huge lobby group backed by bishops threatened to use its influence on government, advertisements of mining firms are now run on TV, a scene absent for many decades now.
A lucrative position such as VP for Communications didn’t exist in the past. I congratulate JB Baylon for nailing it. It has become a necessity these days for miners to advertise their CSR-related programs, inform the public what measures are being taken to prove they are responsible miners because they are losing the propaganda war to the antis.
But what do you know, the congregation Religious of the Blessed owns stocks in Philex Mining totaling 4.2 Million shares. The Archbishop of Zamboanga has 1.1 Million shares and 3.1 Million shares owned by the Archbishop of Manila. With the closing price of Philex (PX) last Friday at around P19, the Catholic church owns around P160M worth of stocks in Philex.
What a hypocrite.
Tapos si Gina Lopez, nabuking namemeke pala ng dokumento ng mga lumad. Due to a time-dependent regulation something, napilitan si Lopez na mag antedate ng mga papeles ng mga complainant kuno. E nabisto. Kaya malaking isyu noon kasabay ng impeachment ni Corona yung sagutan nila Gina Lopes at MV Pangilinan.
Ellen, There is also a Plant in Taganito run by Sumitomo involving acid leaching which collects even low-grade ore so that a previously “mined out” site can still be made useful. This plant, together with the Nickel Asia equipment were burned by savage NPA rebels late last year. The cost of damage ran in several billions. This by far is the biggest amage the NPA has one to a private company. Around ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY trucks, tractors, barges, aside from buildings were burned by the rebels.
The NPA claimed the mines caused the silting of the waterways, Nickel Asia said it was due to the rains. It was later proven in December during typhoon Sendong that the landslides were really caused by loosened topsoil due to the continuous downpouring of rain.
Slip of TonGuE’s finger: …damage the NPA has done…
Tongue, we were impressed with the safety measures being practiced in Rio Tuba. I think it’s because it’s run by the Japanese who are sticklers for safety.
We were told that the crocodile whose skeleton is being displayed in the Palawan crocodile farm was caught in Rio Tuba. A reporter told me that crocodiles won’t stay in a place which is heavily polluted.
On our way from Rio Tuba to Puerto Princesa (a five-hour drive), we passed another mining site (NOT Nickel Asia) which looks not so responsible.
Talk with military people in Palawan confirmed our observation.They said the communities around that mine are complaining about harmful operations. The owners are asking for their protection but they were told the military cannot serve as security guards of private firms.
Those military people said the best security protection for a mining operation is good relations with the surrounding communities. And that can only be achieved with responsible mining and mining with conscience.
I’ve just read some articles of top analysts in business journals that predict that the 21st century will be the century of minerals. We are lucky because we are a ‘rich’ country. In one report we were rated as the sixth fastest growing economy in the world. And projected to land a high place in the worlds richest citizens by 2050 which is dominated by Asian economies. With Singapore on top, followed by Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, the US is the only western country in the top 5.
Then I found this foreign NGO report:
But government must ensure we use these resources wisely. Aside from providing much-needed employment, mines must provide the gov’t the appropriate revenues not mere pittances which is the bone of contention of most anti-mining advocates, aside of course from environmental destruction.
We have learned our lessons from Marcopper, Lafayette, Lepanto, and many other smaller accidents.
It is no secret that people who live near mines in the Philippines are overwhelmingly being made worse off, because of environmental degradation, economic stagnation and human rights concerns.
I hope that with this example in Rio Tuba being the Zamora brothers’ showcase for sustainable and responsible mining, many opponents of this very promising industry which would most probably propel our country to rockstar status would open their minds and shift their energies to making it work rather than killing it altogether.
Agree, agree Tongue.
kapag pansariling pakinabang ang numero uno sa agenda ng sinumang namumuhunan sa anumang uri ng negosyo ASAHAN na ang walang habas na pagwawalang bahala sa kapaligiran sukdulang ipagdusa ng mga naninirahan sa paligid.
sana nga, makaahon ang pilipinas sa kahirapan sa tulong ng pagmimina.
pero matagal nang kabikabila ang minahan, GANU’N pa rin ang kalagayan ng mga nakapaligid. iilan lamang ang yumayaman.
Magno, kagahamanan din ng mga namumuno. Kadalasan yung dapat magpatupad siya ang unang sumusuway. Alam na natin ang kapalit. Para rin itong jueteng, basta meron si Kapitan, si konsehal, si hepe, si meyor, si Gob at si congressman, (minsan hanggang Malakanyang), malaya ka nang gawin ang gusto mo. Sa mga insidente sa Mindoro, Banaue, Bicol at Agusan, lahat ng itinuturo, yung mga tiwaling tagapagpatupad ng batas ang laging kasabwat.
Tandaan natin, ang mga pinuno ng negosyo ay laging gagawa ng paraan upang maging matipid at mas malaki ang kita ng korporasyon, kundi’y sisipain sila sa board ng kanyang mga investor. Ngunit kung ang kabilang panig, ang gobyerno’t mamamayan, ay hindi papayag, walang panlolokong mangyayari kailanman.
Walang maloloko kung walang nagpapaloko.
That’s why it’s important that the citizenry is informed (pasok dito ang FOI).
You empower people with information. An empowered citizenry is an effective check to the political leadership.
Agree. FREE information dapat. Hindi yung binibili ang report o project status. Para saan pang naging transparent kung may halagang katapat. E di itaas mo lang ang presyo sabihin mo meron nang transparency?
kaya nga, tongue, ellen.
dapat nang madaliing isabatas ang FOI bill upang magkaroon naman ng kapangyarihan ang mamamayan at mamatyagan ang kilos ng mga kinuukulan.
bukod sa rito, ‘yung mga namumunong ang palaging ipinamamarali ay tapat na paglilingkod ay HUWAG sanang urungan ng bayag kapag nagkakagipitan at nagkakaipitan na. sila din kasi kadalasan ang unang unang nagtatago sa laylayan ng saya ng kanikanilang mga lola!
ganyan ang sapantaha ko sa katwiran ni evardone NA kilalang balimbing sa kongreso at maging noong gobernador pa siya.