Philex ready to resume Padcal, Tuba operations

By Butch Franco

TUBA, Benguet – Philex Mining Corp. is prepared to resume formal operations at its Padcal Mine, as it has put in place urgent measures to rehabilitate a tailings pond that accidentally leaked water and sediment in Itogon, Benguet last Aug. 1.

 “We are well prepared and well equipped to return to our normal production at Padcal, as our tailings pond has been stabilized,” the company’s senior vice president for Corporate Affairs, Michael Toledo, said.

           

He stressed, however, that Philex Mining is still continuing with the rehabilitation of Padcal’s Tailings Storage Facility No. 3 (TSF3), so it could withstand even the heaviest downpour and worst typhoons and earthquakes.

           

The open spillway being constructed as part of TSF3’s rehabilitation is on track for completion by the end of June while Padcal has produced significant amount of fresh tailings for the filling and beaching process required to further stabilize the pond.

           

Libby Ricafort, vice president of Philex Mining and resident manager of Padcal Operations, said the second of the spillway’s three chutes would be completed by the end of the month while the third will be undertaken during the next dry season.

           

“With two chutes we are already very confident of the stability of TSF3,” stressed Mr. Ricafort, who said Philex Mining would ask for a four-month extension of TSF3 rehabilitation should government not allow it to resume formal operations yet.

           

Government regulators had allowed Padcal to resume operations temporarily for four months until July 8.

           

Ricafort said that once completed, the P327-million open spillway can channel as much as 1,000 millimeters of rain over a 24-hour period. This would be equivalent to morethan twice the amount of rainfall brought about by typhoon “Ondoy,” which in 2009 dumped 455 millimeters of rain over 24 hours.

           

He told reporters who visited Padcal Mine over the weekend that the company has so far produced 2.4 million cubic meters of fresh tailings to fill up the conical void in the pond as a result of the leak as well as to create a beach that would push accumulated water away from the pond and into the spillway.

           

Ricafort joined reporters and Philex Mining employees on Saturday in planting vetiver grass at Balog Creek, which was affected by the tailings-leak accident but has now been cleaned up by Padcal employees, although its rehabilitation is ongoing.

A tropical plant that grows naturally and endemic to India, vetiver absorbs pollutants in water and cleans algae to regulate oxygen for fish and other aquatic life in a pond. With its deep, thick root system that spreads vertically, vertiver is also good in preventing soil erosion.

Philex Mining earlier said it was also well prepared to start pumping the sediment that accumulated at Balog Creek’s convergence area with Agno River back to TSF3, but was still awaiting the necessary permits from local governments and the National Power Corp., which has jurisdiction over some areas concerned, for the installation of its pumping system.

Ricafort said the presence of excessive water in TSF3, which was built to hold solids, could breach the offset dike and cause the crest of the main embankment to slum and trigger the unnecessary release of water and sediment into the surrounding area.

He added that TSF3 has now been stabilized, but another 1.1 million cubic meters of fresh tailings are needed to bring it to its previous condition before the accident on Aug. 1,2012 that followed historically unprecedented rains brought about by two successive typhoons.

The spillway is designed to replace TSF3’s underground drainage system, whose Penstock A and Tunnel A were condemned following the accident. The pond’s Penstock B and Tunnel B may still be used if needed, even after the completion of the open spillway.