Philex inks agreements on river rehab

Philex Mining Corp. on late Wednesday signed three agreements to rehabilitate the water channels affected by the tailings spill at its Itogon, Benguet-based Padcal Mine in August. “Harnessing the knowledge and expertise of independent academicians, scientists, and consultants is part of our sincere effort toward the remediation and rehabilitation of areas affected by the Aug. 1 accident in Itogon,” company chairman and chief executive officer Manuel V. Pangilinan said in a statement on Thursday. Apart from rehabilitation, the agreements sought to determine the quantity of tailings spill at Philex Mining’s Padcal Mine, and revegetate the mining firm’s two abandoned tailings ponds. The third-party experts involved in the agreements were several academics from the University of the Philippines: Dr. Carlos Primo David of the National Institute of Geological Sciences at UP-Diliman; Dr. Nicomedes dela Cruz Briones of the School of Environmental Science and Management at UP-Los Baños (UPLB); Dr. Emmanuel Lleva, UPLB; Dr. Maxima Flavier, UPLB; Dr. Nina Cadiz, UPLB; and Louie Balicanta, who has a masters degree in urban planning from UP-Diliman. On the rehabilitation of affected waters of Balog Creek and Agno River, the first proposal includes a plan on sediment transport modeling; the analysis of heavy metals; the characterization of fisheries; the estimation of economic loss; and the estimation of the environmental benefits of biological rehabilitation. The second proposal will ascertain, “quantitatively and scientifically,” the mine tailings that spilled into Balog Creek. These include the review of the monthly monitoring data collected by Philex Mining from Tailings Pond No. 3, the development of a technique to trace the extent of the tailings spill, and the determination of the volume of tailings material in waters beyond Balog Creek. The third proposal outlines the pilot testing of alternative revegetation methods in Tailings Pond No. 3; the analysis of nutrient content of tailings as measure of material reconditioning; and the final assessment of the proposed revegetation process. Philex Mining’s senior vice president for corporate affairs Michael Toledo said the company has a program in place for the remediation and rehabilitation of Balog Creek and its convergence area with Agno River. The company plans to spend at least P1 billion for the program, including the rehabilitation of the breached tailings dam, until April 2013. The clean-up will be pursued parallel to the construction of an open spillway to replace the penstock system for water management at Tailings Storage Facility No. 3. It also hopes to resume operations at Padcal around the second quarter of next year when the open spillway, which would replace the penstock and underground tunnel system of draining water from TP3 to Balog Creek, will have been completed. — Rouchelle R. Dinglasan/BM, GMA News