Large Scale Mining in Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines
A provincial official here has called on Malacanang not to allow the resumption of large scale mining activities in the province, saying it will trigger a similar fate with the recent landslide in Compostela Valley and flashfloods in Cagayan De Oro City that killed many villagers and displaced thousands.
Lawyer Edgardo Balgos, provincial administrator raised the issue in the wake of their earlier letter to President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, calling for the stoppage of the gold-molybdenum extraction project of the FCF Minerals Corporation in barangay Runruno in Quezon town.
“We have yet to receive a response from the Palace because we are wary on the possible disaster that may happen to our constituents near and below the coverage of the mining project. We have already experienced a flashflood in barangay Runruno before and it was a huge disaster,” Balgos said.
The mining site in Runruno mountain has been found by the Mines and GeoSciences Bureau(MGB) as landslide-prone due to the many holes it suffered from small scale miners since the early 60s, he added.
He also cited the recent study of the MGB national office where Nueva Vizcaya was listed as second landslide-prone province in the country.
In their study after the massive flashflood and landslide in barangay Runruno, the MGB in Cagayan Valley enumerated the folowing environmental impact and geo-hazard assessments:
Lack of climate change adaptation and integration plan, aggravation of the already high flood susceptibility of the villages, higher risk of flash flooding, absence of limited “Fail Safe Mechanism” for the Tailing Storage Facility and other hazardous mining processes; very short period of seismic observation, potential health hazards, significant reduction of irrigation water and lack of detailed and comprehensive disaster risk reduction study.
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