|
THE
Filipino management team running the Rapu Rapu project
since January 2006, has resigned after negotiations with
South Korean-owned Philco Resources Ltd., the project’s
new owners, fell through.
Carlos
G. Dominguez, chairman and president of Lafayette
Philippines Inc. (LPI), said his team [plans] to leave
the project in its best shape. But in a text message to
the BusinessMirror, Dominguez said “the Koreans are
asking us back but we haven’t agreed on the terms yet.”
He added
that: “[the management team] gave priority to the
environment, the host communities and our employees. We
could have done more if we had the proper funding
support we needed from Day One. But short on funds and
swarmed by antimining advocates, we [expect to] leave
the project as a real asset to the island of Rapu-Rapu
in Albay.” Dominguez served as a Secretary of
Agriculture and as Minister of Natural Resources during
the Aquino administration
Bayani
Agabin, LPI legal counsel, told the BusinessMirror that
the two parties initially failed to agree on the terms
of the management agreement. He added that their team
will leave the project once Philco forms its own group
and that they expect the transition to be completed by
August this year.
Philco
is jointly owned by LG Metals and Kores Inc. but is
based in Malaysia. It took control of the Albay prospect
in April this year.
The
Dominguez-led group took over from an Australian team
after the project suffered two cyanide spills during
heavy rains in late October 2005. He immediately ordered
the construction of the project’s dams according to
specifications. These dams held up when Milenyo and
Reming lashed the Bicol region in late 2006. Systems and
procedures were put in place culminating in the ISO
14002 certification for the mining and processing
company’s environment management system.
The team
also made sure that the community directly benefited
from the project thru its regular medical outreach and
feeding program, free electricity, better education and
livelihood projects.
To
address antimining advocacy, he stumped even the hotbeds
in Albay and Sorsogon to explain the project and his
vision and mission. Dominguez also opened the mining
site to critics, many of whom refused the team’s
invitation for an ocular inspection and briefing.
About a
year after building up the project to its design,
regaining the social license and securing a lifting of
the suspension order, Dominguez supervised the
resumption of operations only to be thwarted by lack of
funds as a result of the long period that the project
was not operational.
This
resulted in Lafayette Mining Ltd., the Australian listed
parent company, being placed under voluntary
administration. The local companies filed a petition for
rehabilitation with the
Pasig
courts in February.
LPI was
the first foreign firm to operate a mine in the
Philippines after a law granting full foreign ownership
of local mining projects was upheld by the courts in
late 2004.
Its Rapu
Rapu mine was forecast to generate revenues of $350
million a year from annual production of 10,000 tons of
copper in concentrate, 14,000 tons of zinc in
concentrate, 50,000 ounces of gold and 600,000 ounces of
silver.
The mine
facility, which resumed operations in February last year
after its suspension, is operating at just over half of
its daily processing capacity of 3,000 tons of ore.
|
