(Updated) Intex Resources' environmental clearance temporarily suspended

(Updated) Environmental clearance given to Intex Resources has been suspended for 90 days, effectively halting the Norwegian company’s nickel mining operations in Mindoro. This was announced by Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Joselito Atienza Jr. after local government leaders held a demonstration on Wednesday opposing the miner’s operations. During the suspension period, the department will look into the “allegations" of the protesters, Atienza told GMANews.TV in a phone interview on Wednesday night. The DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau have also been directed to look into the complaints of the residents, Atienza said. Groups opposing the project decried the lack of public consultation, adding that the nickel facility is located within a watershed. The watershed “is the source of irrigation for some 50,000-hectare rice fields in the towns of Victoria, Naujan and Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro…which account for 51 percent of total rice production in the province," the Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), an anti-mining group, said in a statement. But these claims will “be ascertained and verified," Atienza said. “If the concession is indeed within a watershed, then no operations should really be taking place there," Atienza said. Moreover, the ECC secured by Intex Resources also violates a 25-year moratorium on large scale mining in Oriental Mindoro and poses health and environmental risks to the residents in the area, said the protesters led by another group, Alyansa Laban sa Mina (Alamin). Mindoro produces an average 600,000 metric tons of rice a year, making the island one of the country’s largest source of the staple. Last month, the DENR approved Intex’s environmental clearance certificate, indicating that the project can proceed in an environmentally-critical area. Earlier, then environment secretary Heherson Alvarez also temporarily revoked the company’s ECC when the department discovered that the project was located on a critical watershed portion of the island. On Wednesday, a group of about 25 people, including two priests and 16 members of the indigenous Mangyan tribe, launched a hunger strike in front of the DENR’s Quezon City office to oppose the nickel mining’s project. The group was later able to hold a dialogue with DENR officials led by Atienza. It was attended by Occidental Mindoro governor Josephine Y. Ramirez-Sato, Oriental Mindoro Governor Arnan Panaligan, Oriental Mindoro Vice Gov. Estella Aceron, Oriental Mindoro Rep. Alfonso Umali, Jr., Congressman Rod Valencia, mayors of affected municipalities, Bishops Broderick Pabillo and Warlito Cajandig and Mangyan leader Librada Isidro. - With Andreo C. Calonzo, GMANews.TV