PAB clears Philex Padcal operations after dam spill

ITOGON, Benguet -- The Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB) has issued to Philex Mining Corp. a formal lifting of the cease-and-desist order it had imposed on the company’s gold-and-copper production in this province, paving the way for the permanent resumption of operations at Padcal mine after fulfilling its environmental obligation with government agencies concerned.

 “Wherefore, the undersigned hereby issues a Formal Lifting Order in favor of the respondent,” the PAB said in a June 9 decision received today by Padcal mine, in Tuba, Benguet, from the Baguio City-based regional office of the Environment Management Bureau (EMB), which serves as secretariat in the adjudication of pollution cases.

 A quasi-judicial body not covered by the authority of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), which regulates the mining industry, the PAB also noted in a two-page resolution a report by the EMB, in the Cordilleras Administrative Region, of Philex Mining’s compliance to the urgent remediation measures at its Padcal’s Tailings Storage Facility No. 3 (TSF3).

 Michael Toledo, SVP for Corporate Affairs at Philex Mining, welcomed the decision, saying the company will continue to work further as a responsible miner by marching on with its environmental-stewardship advocacy  through the various forestation and reforestation activities, as well as the rehabilitation of TSF3, including the completion of an open spillway.

 Earlier TSF3, in Itogon, discharged nontoxic water and sediment onto the Balog Creek, a tributary of the Agno River, on Aug. 1, 2012, following historically unprecedented rainfall brought about by two successive typhoons. Philex Mining had voluntarily suspended operations immediately, resuming production only starting from March 8, 2013 based on a four-month temporary lifting order issued by government and which was extended indefinitely afterwards.

 The company has since abided by government requirements for the resumption of its operations at Padcal, including payments of P188.6 million as environmental obligation to the PAB in relation to Republic Act 9275, otherwise known as the Clean Water Act, on June 5, and P1.034 billion to the MGB, on Feb. 18, 2013, as fees over the accidental discharge of sediment.

 The PAB had imposed the said payment after ensuring that all the effluent and water samples collected from Balog and Agno on March 14-15, 2013 were within the water quality criteria required by government. These samples were collected and analyzed by the designated JMMT, or Joint Multipartite Monitoring Team. For its part, the MGB had asked for P1.034 billion in fees while it was studying the pertinent details of TSF3’s remediation.

Besides the construction of the P500-million open spillway, which replaces TSF3’s underground drainage system, the urgent remediation measures at Padcal include the filling up (with fresh tails) of the conical void at the pond left behind by the tailings leak accident as well as the creation of a beach that would push the accumulated water away from the pond, which is tasked to hold solids, and onto the spillway.

 TSF3’s third and last chute will be finished in July, making the pond able to accommodate an unusual rainfall of 1,500 millimeters (mm) over a 24-hour period—more than thrice the 455 mm of rain dumped by Typhoon Ondoy in 24 hours in 2009. The pond’s Penstock A, from which water discharges onto the Balog Creek via Tunnel A, had been sealed off with concrete after the accident while Penstock B, which connects to Tunnel B, will also be sealed off with concrete once the third chute is completed.