Tampakan miner banners ‘progress’ in disclosing environmental impact

Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) has made progress in disclosing its Mine Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the $5.9-billion Tampakan copper-gold project, the company said Thursday. Public consultations on the project are also under way, said Sagittarius Mines general manager for operations and external affairs Mark Williams at the Mining Philippines 2011 Conference in Manila. “SMI commenced our public consultation meetings in the towns of Tampakan in South Cotabato, Kiblawan in Davao del Sur, and Malungon in Sarangani earlier this month with a similar meeting being held in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat [Thursday]," Williams said. “These consultation meetings provide our stakeholders with an opportunity to hear a balanced report of our draft Mine EIS and allow them to provide feedback to SMI staff and ask questions to our technical specialist," he added. The public consultation follows an intensive period of private-stakeholder briefings during which the company met with over 2,000 individuals from 118 stakeholder groups, SMI said. These stakeholders range from local government units to non-government organizations, indigenous people’s groups, and civil society organizations, the company added. SMI has an extensive mine closure plan that will progressively rehabilitate mine site areas right from the beginning of the commercial operations, according to the company’s initial EIS. Once it deals with the stakeholder consultations, the company said it will submit the final environmental impact statement to the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau to serve as the basis for the approval or non-approval of the company’s environmental compliance certificate application. If the ECC application is approved, the company will start production in 2016. — PE/VS, GMA News