With five years to go before starting its operation, Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) is optimistic the South Cotabato Provincial Board would lift its ban on open-pit mining.
The Board approved in 2010 the provincial Environmental Code which bans open-pit mining, the method that SMI would use in its US$5.9 billion Tampakan Gold and Copper Project, which is set to go into commercial operation in 2016.
The Board has been asked to review the Environmental Code, the biggest threat to the SMI project considered as the biggest single investment in the country today.
The Regional Mineral Development Council (RMDC) had filed a petition to review the Environmental Code as soon as it was approved, citing that it collided head-on with Republic Act 7942 or the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997.
The Provincial Board is yet to review the code nearly two years after the petition was filed by the RMDC.
SMI is pinning hopes the Board would favor a review of the environment code to lift the open-pit mining ban, said John B. Arnaldo, SMI corporate communications manager
The Tampakan project of SMI backed by Canadian mining giant Xstrata Copper, the world’s fourth largest copper producer, is seen as a crucial project that was expected to dramatically transform South Cotabato’s economic landscape when its starts operation.
Nearly two years after the RMDC petition to review was filed, the members of the Board are still studying their options, according to Board Member Ernesto Catedral.
Many of the board members belonging to the committees tasked to act on the petition have yet to submit their positions, he said.
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