the long-term rehabilitation could take around thr

Editor's Note: Published on Page A17 of the November 18, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer






LEGAZPI CITY—A regional environment official yesterday continued to defend a mining firm that had leaked toxic waste into the waters of Rapu-rapu, Albay, saying it won’t be shut down because it committed only one violation—failure to contain excess effluents that led to the breaching of its tailings pond.

Reynulfo Juan, Mines and Geosciences Bureau regional director, said while his office welcomed calls for the closure of Lafayette Philippines Inc.’s operations in Rapu-rapu, he saw no reason to do so.

He said the MGB will base its decision on its findings, not on the protests and growing clamor to shut down Lafayette.

But he told reporters at the DENR that his office found the rehabilitation plan submitted by Lafayette to be inadequate.

“We find it inadequate. We have a lot of comments on their plan,” he said.

The MGB is also seeking a review of the entire tailings disposal system of Lafayette to check if it was faithful to the DENR plan.


Juan said









the study submitted by Lafayette was “theoretically okay” but it was possible the actual set-up in the plant was different.

The storm water run-off drainage, for example, passed through the tailings pond, which should not be the case because this would naturally cause the pond to overflow during heavy rains, the MGB said.

The EMB has also suspended the water discharge permit it issued to Lafayette, stopping the company from using its tailings ponds.

No cyanide

Lafayette was also prohibited from buying cyanide pending the rehabilitation process.

These prohibitions could delay Lafayette’s scheduled shift to base metals production from gold production because it could not use its tailings ponds or cyanide during the rehabilitation process.

The long-term rehabilitation could take around three months, Juan said. Lafayette’s gold processing has been indefinitely suspended by the MGB.

The Rapu-Rapu Polymetallic Project, dubbed as the flagship project of the country’s revived mining industry, was responsible for two mine spills the last month, causing fish kills and cyanide contamination of two nearby creeks, Hollowstone and Ungay.

A defective valve channeled mine tailings to the events pond instead of the tailings pond, causing the events pond to overflow on Oct. 11. Three weeks later, heavy rains caused the tailings pond to overflow on Oct. 31, according to official MGB reports.

“They said they did not foresee the amount of rainwater, but we don’t find that as an excuse,” Juan said.

The MGB has directed Lafayette to do an immediate physical cleanup of the shorelines and detoxify the environmental ponds to ensure that the effluent released would meet DENR standards. With a report from Gil Francis Arevalo, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau