By Leonardo Perante II | Correspondent
BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—As part of its continuing efforts to ensure a productive and healthy community, the Australian firm OceanaGold Philippines Inc. (OGPI) is revitalizing agriculture that encourages more villagers, including teachers and students, to plant nutritious vegetables and fruits right in their own backyard. This will not only ensure residents of a continuous supply of homegrown crops, but also meet the vegetable and fruit requirements of the village.
“Mining and agriculture can coexist, and Nueva Vizcaya is a citrus capital. It is precisely because of this reason that we conduct a series of citrus seminars among our local farmers to educate them further on the proper production and postharvest techniques,” OGPI Senior Vice President for Communications and External Affairs Chito Gozar said.
Aside from the farm-to-market roads constructed by the mining firm in surrounding villages, Gozar said farmers in Barangay Didipio now find it more convenient to transport their products because of the all-weather main road opened by the mining firm.
“Farmers in Barangay Didipio find it more convenient to transport their farm products now, because of the all-weather road established by the mining firm. The 22-kilometer upland highway was designed according to world-class mine-safety standards,” Gozar said.
While the road was opened in Quirino, both provinces benefit from it, he said. “The ongoing pavement construction of the road to the site is a favorable project not only for our laborers, but for everyone who regularly commutes to the community center and to the project site, because of the friendly road design,” Gozar said
As a preemptive move to ensure food self-sufficiency, OGPI, through its Social Development Program (SDP), has committed to revive a vegetable-growing program it launched years ago with the production of high-value crops in the village hosting the mining operation. Giving emphasis on how water is handled by the project, Gozar said the firm employs high-tech water-processing technology.
“For a large-scale mining project like Didipio Mines, employing a water-treatment plant equipped with clarifying systems is environmentally necessary,” Gozar said.
Low-quality water gets extracted and treated. Eventually, after the cleaning process, the already clean water is recycled back to the ecosystem with improved water balance that provides positive environmental impact. The water-treatment plant used by Didipio Operation has a capacity of 47,520 cubic meters a day. Its online system parameters are digitally monitored through remote control.
“Our environment team sees to it the TSS level of water discharged from the tailings storage facility is within the set criteria from the start of our operations. But with OceanaGold’s increasing ‘green field’ projects and programs in the pipeline, we are already taking our water-quality improvements to the next level,” Gozar said.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has granted the Didipio project a wastewater discharge permit for its tailings-storage facility.
“We initiated and constructed the water-treatment plant to have a cleaner water discharge that could exceed compliance-requirement standards prescribed by the Environment Management Bureau. OceanaGold’s tailings-storage facility is cyanide-free,” Gozar said. The Didipio Project Environment Team continuously conducts research to further improve water quality at the mine site with daily monitoring conducted by an in-house laboratory chemist. The group also breeds fish at the treatment plant as a healthy water-quality indicator.
“OceanaGold strives to exceed industry benchmarks through the implementation of innovative environmental programs and research across operations. Building the water-treatment plant demonstrates the company’s commitment to environmental stewardship, safety, compliance and continuous improvement,” Gozar said.
He said that, after reaching commercial production, discipline in all aspects of the mining operation must be observed during the project’s mine life. “The project runs according to world-class standards and high-tech operations using computer-aided concentrate processing system for precision.
We hate to see any margin of error, because we are aware of the punishing consequences the project may suffer. We cannot afford breaking the mining laws, because we are conscious that severely violating it would shut down a big-time investment,” Gozar said.
A geologist by profession, Gozar said the project is environmentally compliant and safety conscious to the highest level in its operations and remains committed to ethical, responsible and sustainable mineral development.
When asked how the company would address natural disasters like major flooding and environmental degradation of existing waterways, OGPI Country Director Bradley Norman said OceanaGold works closely with the local community to minimize the impact of natural disasters on local waterways. “On a corporate level, we have an arrangement with the International River Foundation, which works in partnership around the world to promote the sustainable restoration and management of river basins and waterways,” Norman said.
Image credits: Leonardo Perante II