Philex assures DENR chief on integrity of tailings facility
Philex Mining Corp. has assured Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu of the integrity of Tailings Storage Facility No. 3 (TSF) at the company’s Padcal mine in Benguet as well as the continuation of programs on environmental protection.
Cimatu made a surprise visit last Wednesday to Padcal, the company’s gold-andcopper operations hosted by the Benguet towns of Tuba and Itogon.
“We can assure you that our tailings pond can handle the volume of rainwater more than what the worst typhoons had caused,” Eulalio Austin Jr., CEO and president of Philex Mining, said during a presentation at the Philex guest house at Sitio Padcal, Barangay Camp 3. He also said the tailings pond could withstand earthquakes equivalent to the strongest that have hit the country.
Cimatu, who arrived with a 25-man entourage, pressed Austin and other Philex officials on the ability and reliability of TSF3 and its accompanying structures to withstand flooding and earthquake, bearing in mind the 2012 accident following two typhoons.
Philex Mining SVP and Padcal resident manager Manuel Agcaoili said TSF3’s open spillway, which replaced its underground drainage system since August 2013, was built with embankmentdesign parameters based on ANCOLD and ICOLD guidelines and could handle the amount of rainwater more than what Tropical Storm Ondoy (2009) as well as Typhoons Ferdie and Gener (2012) had caused.
ANCOLD, or Australian National Committee on Large Dams, and ICOLD, or International Commission on Large Dams, a European NGO founded in Paris, provide guidelines in the building of dams that are safe, economical and environmentally and socially sustainable. These are vital to achieving excellence for all aspects of dam engineering, management and related issues.
At TSF3 in Itogon’s Sitio Balog, Barangay Ampucao, Cimatu acknowleged the efforts that Philex has been exerting to further improve its facilities, particularly the ongoing improvement of the open spillway, through which nontoxic water passes from the tailings pond into the Balog Creek, a tributary to the Agno River.
“You can continue what you are doing to protect the environment, ensuring no community will be affected in case a disaster strikes again,” he said.
Austin said Padcal mine and Philex have been consistent in the implementation of various programs on community development, nationbuilding and environmental protection.
He also stressed Philex has been known as the “posterboy” of responsible mining in the country.
On Aug. 1, 2012, Philex suspended operations voluntarily as nontoxic tails and water discharged from TSF3 into Balog Creek, following historically unprecedented rains brought about by Ferdie and Gener, which hit Benguet successively. It resumed production only on March 8, 2013 based on a four-month temporary lifting order issued by government and which was afterwards extended indefinitely. The formal resumption of operations started on Aug. 27, 2013.
The government allowed Philex to resume operations after the company implemented urgent remediation measures, such as providing immediate assistance to the affected residents, cleaning up Balog Creek and ensuring the integrity of TSF3 by building an open spillway.
The company also paid P188.6 million as environmental obligation to the Pollution and Adjudication Board (PAB), in relation to Republic Act 9275, the Clean Water Act, on June 5, 2013, and P1.034 billion to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), on Feb. 18, 2013, as fees over the accidental discharge of sediment.
Having three chutes, each measuring 12 meters wide and 300 meters long, the open spillway can channel up to 1,500 millimeters of rain over 24 hours, or more than thrice the 455 mm of rain that Ondoy dumped over a 24-hour period.
Government regulations say an open spillway must be able to withstand a flood event having an unusual rainfall with a 1-percent chance of occurring at any given time. With TSF3 and its open spillway, this unusual rainfall would be equivalent to 1,000 mm in 24 hours.