#WhyMining: A Twitter discussion on Philex’s P1-B fine

MANILA, Philippines – Join the #WhyMining online discussion on Friday, October 5, for another Twitter conversation on the ongoing saga of the Philex Mining Corp. tailings pond leakage in Benguet. 

From 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and using hashtag #WhyMining, representatives of business, industry, environmental, non-government groups, students and others who have a stake in or opinion on the mining industry will discuss the most recent issue in the Philex’s Padcal mine leaks: massive fines of over P1 billion. 

On September 26, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) said the penalties imposed on Philex for violations of the Mining Act reach P1.034 billion. 

This amount is due 15 days after due process has been observed, giving Philex a chance to contest this at the Department of Enviornment Natural Resources (DENR). The deadline–and the start of the 15-day count–has been moved to October 22. 

Meantime, on October 2, a DENR unit said the penalties for Philex’s violations to the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) is P50,000.

Government says… 

The P1.034 billion fine for the Mining Act violations was based on the 13,513,507 cubic meters of total volume discharged sediment to the Balog River from the time the Padcal mine’s facility leaked on August 1 until the end of the government-led multi-disciplinary team’s investigation on September 6. 

With the sediments having a bulk density of 1.531 metric tons of solids per cubic meter, the total weight of discharged solids is 20,689,179.42 metric tons, the MGB letter to Philex said. 

This finding of 20.69 million metric tons of sediments that spilled is more than the nearly 5 million cubic meters the initial fine of P325 million was based. 
 
Under the Mining Act of 1995, the penalty is P50 per metric ton of tailings “discharged into areas other than the approved tailings disposal area.”
 
“As such, the tailings fee of P1,034,358,971.00 has been computed to be payable by PMC (Philex), based on the 20,689,179.42 metric tons of discharged solids to Balog River,” MGB Director Leo Jasareno said in the letter.
 
Philex says…

Philex vice president Mike Toledo said they will contest the fine since the spill was caused by “force majeure.”

He cited the “historically unprecedented heavy rains generated by Typhoon Gener at the Padcal site reaching 331.80mm on the day of the spill,” stressing that this exceeded by almost 100mm the 50-year rainfall record for Padcal over a single day.

“One of the most basic principles of fairness and of law is that no party should be held responsible or be penalized for events over which it has no control,” Philex said.

Toledo stressed, however, that Philex is contesting “the unfair imposition of the fine” will not get in the way of the company’s own efforts “to remediate the effects of the spill on the environment and surrounding communities even if caused by an event outside its control.”

He added that they are willing to shoulder the cost of clean-up efforts in affected rivers, the lost livelihood opportunities for those in nearby communities, but will contest the fine. 

Tailings pond 

The tailings pond is where the mining firm contain the sediment and other dumps from the process of extracting minerals from ore. 

The pond is situated at about 30 kilometers downstream of Agno River from its confluence with Balog River. Drain tunnels release water into the Balog River, which runs for about 2.5 kilometers before merging with the Agno River.

Philex said they will build alternative tailings facility that will cost a combined P600 million and will take at least 6 months to build. – Rappler.com

Read the Blog on the 2012 Mining Conference for a blow-by-blow account of issues being discussed.

For the existing mining contracts in the Philippines, view this #WhyMining map.

How does mining affect you? Are you pro or against mining? Engage, discuss & take a stand! Visit Rappler’s #WhyMining microsite for the latest stories on issues affecting the mining sector. Join the conversation by emailing whymining@rappler.com your views on the issue.

For other views on mining, read:

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