Philex to add 2 more ponds after tailings dam collapse

TUBA, Benguet -- Philex Mining Corp. is pushing through with the construction of two more tailings ponds here as the 2020 estimated mine life of its Padcal Mine could be extended.

 “The currently projected mine life is up to 2020, but exploration activities are ongoing within the MPSA to further extend the company’s gold and copper production at Padcal Mine,” Libby Ricafort, vice president for Operations at Philex Mining and resident manager of the Padcal Project, said Friday in a press statement.

           

MPSA is the Mineral Production Sharing Agreement, which indicates areas where a mining company may explore, develop, and operate.

           

Ricafort also said that Philex Mining will use heavy equipment to step up its cleanup drive on Balog Creek and the convergence area with Agno River, as it is looking to spend P400 million for the construction of a spillway to rehabilitate its Tailings Pond No. 3 (TP3) in Padcal.

           

“Right now we have to do it manually because of the difficulty in accessing the Balog Creek, but we will eventually mechanize the hauling of sediment from the waterway,” he told reporters.

           

Michael Toledo, senior vice president for Corporate Affairs at Philex Mining, said the company would now focus on the building of the spillway and then the two more tailings ponds, following the successful concrete plugging of TP3’s Tunnel A, where water used to discharge from Penstock A.

           

He said Tunnel B, which connects to Penstock B of the TP3, would also be condemned and sealed once the spillway is completed by around March or April 2013.

           

This move would eventually make Philex Mining shut down its underground tunnel drainage system for TP3, replacing it with the open spillway system. The latter would allow TP3 to be used again for two to three more years while Tailings Pond Nos. 4 and 5 are being built for long-term utilization. Tailings Pond Nos. 1 and 2 had long been condemned and rehabilitated.

           

Also today, Toledo assured Philex Mining investors that the company would be able to hit its target period for the construction of the spillway that would pave the way for the resumption of gold and copper production at the Padcal Mine before the end of the first half of next year. 

           

Ricafort said, meanwhile, that the company would know by the end of this month the amount of sediment that had been discharged accidentally from its TP3 after a topographical survey of Balog Creek and its convergence area with Agno River.

           

Philex Mining voluntarily suspended its operations on Aug. 1 following the spillage at TP3 due to historically unprecedented heavy rains brought about by typhoons Ferdie and Gener. Experts have repeatedly announced that the sediment is non-toxic as the chemical compounds used in milling operations were biodegradable. There have been no reports of casualties or fatalities as a result of the accident.