MGB suspends Citinickel Mines operations in Palawan 

Citinickel Mines and Development Corp. have been suspended indefinitely from operating its nickel mine in Sofronio Espanola, Palawan because of a silt spill that polluted the rivers in the area, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) said.

 

The spill happened in Citinickel's Pulot mine on June 5 when the miner's siltation control facilities were breached and caused massive discoloration and build up of sediments in the Pasi and Pulot Rivers, the bureau said in a June 10 suspension order.

 

On-site reports reaching the bureau showed the breach in the silt pond has not been repaired and traces of laterite sediments were still present in the rivers, MGB director Leo Jasareno said.

 

“In view of the foregoing, your mining operations at Barangay Pulot, Sofronio Espanola, and Palawan are hereby suspended indefinitely,” the bureau said in the order to Citinickel president Ferdinand Pallera.

 

Copies of the order were released to the media.

 

A subsidiary of Oriental Peninsula Resources Group, whose shares are traded on the Philippine Stock Exchange, Citinickel was also suspended by MGB in November 2012 when its Toronto mine also spilled silt.

 

The silt spill in Toronto nickel mine in Narra, Palawan polluted the Pinagduguan River and affected 6.8 hectares of farmlands when a mining foreman drained the silt into an old sump or an open area in the ground for waste liquid to flow into, according to the MGB.

 

As a result, mine waste escaped to Pinagduguan River. 

 

Citinickel paid total penalties of P375,000 and the mine operations were suspended from November 26, to December 9, 2012. – VS, GMA News