MGB probes ‘No Mining Zone’ 06-05-07

	NORDIS WEEKLY May 7, 2006
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MGB probes ‘No Mining Zone’
BAGUIO CITY (May 3) — Despite earlier community protests, the regional Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (MGB) upholds an order issued on December 9, 2002 declaring an area directly below Camp 3 from L1500 in Itogon, Benguet as temporary no mining zone (TNMZ) pending official results of an on-going investigation. According to MGB’s Neoman dela Cruz, regional director, the TMNZ resulted from a 2002 barricade at the same mine site. “As an offshoot of the year-long barricade by communities in Acupan, a TNMZ was delineated, with the company concurring to the people’s clamor,” dela Cruz told Nordis in an interview. Last month, MGB dispatched an investigation team to look into the issues surrounding the barricade at Benguet Corporation’s (BC) Acupan Mines arising from the entry of contractors at L1500. Meanwhile, MGB has ordered L1500 contractor Ben Macli-ing to stop extraction activities at the TNMZ, as it also reminded Engr. Ernesto Manipon, operations manager of the Acupan Contract Mining Project to direct the contractor and his men not to mine within the TNMZ. An initial MGB report on April 12 by the investigating team found two active working areas along 231 Vein within the TNMZ. Composed of MGB technical and research specialists; members of the local government unit; and BC representatives, the body went to Acupan Mines’ L1500 to project the 300 meter-diameter TNMZ vertically up to the surface. Dela Cruz said, the TNMZ is a danger zone, which the communities earlier pointed out that when opened up for mining activities, it would drain water sources, aside from posing danger of land slide or sinking that would affect life and property in the built-up areas above it. Dela Cruz however clarified that only a portion of L1500 was delineated as TNMZ. “In the presence of stakeholders, an investigation is going on to mark the TNMZ underground and above it,” dela Cruz said. Barricading small scale miners and their respective families who live on the surface around L1500 in Acupan now petitioned the government to declare the whole L1500 as a no mining zone for obvious reasons that it would make the communities on the surface unstable geologically and economically. A petition for a temporary restraining order is already with the courts, according to dela Cruz. Residents of 11 communities in Barangay Virac in Itogon condemned the 2002 MGB order on December 19 that year. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS Post your comments, reactions to this article
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	NORDIS WEEKLY May 7, 2006
Home \| To bottom	Previous \| Next
MGB probes ‘No Mining Zone’
BAGUIO CITY (May 3) — Despite earlier community protests, the regional Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (MGB) upholds an order issued on December 9, 2002 declaring an area directly below Camp 3 from L1500 in Itogon, Benguet as temporary no mining zone (TNMZ) pending official results of an on-going investigation. According to MGB’s Neoman dela Cruz, regional director, the TMNZ resulted from a 2002 barricade at the same mine site. “As an offshoot of the year-long barricade by communities in Acupan, a TNMZ was delineated, with the company concurring to the people’s clamor,” dela Cruz told Nordis in an interview. Last month, MGB dispatched an investigation team to look into the issues surrounding the barricade at Benguet Corporation’s (BC) Acupan Mines arising from the entry of contractors at L1500. Meanwhile, MGB has ordered L1500 contractor Ben Macli-ing to stop extraction activities at the TNMZ, as it also reminded Engr. Ernesto Manipon, operations manager of the Acupan Contract Mining Project to direct the contractor and his men not to mine within the TNMZ. An initial MGB report on April 12 by the investigating team found two active working areas along 231 Vein within the TNMZ. Composed of MGB technical and research specialists; members of the local government unit; and BC representatives, the body went to Acupan Mines’ L1500 to project the 300 meter-diameter TNMZ vertically up to the surface. Dela Cruz said, the TNMZ is a danger zone, which the communities earlier pointed out that when opened up for mining activities, it would drain water sources, aside from posing danger of land slide or sinking that would affect life and property in the built-up areas above it. Dela Cruz however clarified that only a portion of L1500 was delineated as TNMZ. “In the presence of stakeholders, an investigation is going on to mark the TNMZ underground and above it,” dela Cruz said. Barricading small scale miners and their respective families who live on the surface around L1500 in Acupan now petitioned the government to declare the whole L1500 as a no mining zone for obvious reasons that it would make the communities on the surface unstable geologically and economically. A petition for a temporary restraining order is already with the courts, according to dela Cruz. Residents of 11 communities in Barangay Virac in Itogon condemned the 2002 MGB order on December 19 that year. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS Post your comments, reactions to this article
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