Philex: Lost opportunities at Padcal worth P30M a day; MGB monitoring rehab efforts

(Updated 5:15 p.m.) Philex Mining Corp. announced over the weekend that lost opportunities from the suspension of its Padcal mine in Benguet have reached P1.2 billion. “Since we are not mining, we are losing something like P30 million a day. But that’s theoretical. The minerals are still there, we just cannot mine it,” said company vice president for communications Mike Toledo. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources suspended the company's mining and milling operations at Padcal on August 2 following the spillage of waste from its tailings pond 3 into nearby bodies of water. Philex reported the incident to the department's Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and also suspended operations on its own as its engineers worked to repair the leak, which took them 48 hours to fix. On September 3, another waste leak was discovered in the same pond. According to an update posted by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) last Thursday, the new leak was contained within three hours of its discovery. Rehabilitation Apart from lost opportunities, the company is also dealing with a number of penalties, such as river pollution charges that may cost the company P50,000 to P200,000 per day, based on the Water Act. The MGB said that the penalties will be enforced until the pollution is cleared and the affected rivers safely rehabilitated. According to the NDRRMC's update, the MGB is monitoring the rehabilitation efforts. A team from the bureau's central office has also been dispatched to the area to provide Philex  technical assistance. The MGB has also collected water samples from the river that passes near the tailing pond. The samples will subjected to laboratory tests to check on the river's level of contamination. Philex previously said that company will be hard-pressed to meet the P5 billion revenue target for 2012 due to the Padcal suspension, though revenues in the first semester were already almost half of the target at P2.2 billion. Toledo said the company is still financially capable of meeting the challenges of its ongoing cleanup and rehabilitation operations, and has recently allocated P200 to P250 million for the cleanup of Balog Creek. “[The cleanup may] take four to six months, depending really on what our consultants would say. We reiterate that we will not operate until such a time that the integrity of the tailings pond 3 is restored,” he said. Foreign and local consultants, company employees and engineers, and even fellow miners from the Philippine Mine Safety and Environment Association (PMSEA) are acting collectively to expedite rehabilitation and clean-up efforts. Sagittarius Mines, Inc. has also pledged to liberate company geologists to help out. Toledo added that the company may be forced to close pond 3 if rehabilitation efforts are not successful. “We just have to build another if rehabilitation is impossible,” he said. — Amanda Fernandez /LBG/BM, GMA News