"Uphold ban on prospective open-pit mining, DENR urged", 07 November 2017

Various cause-oriented groups…appealed to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to uphold a ban on prospective open-pit mining projects in the country.

“…This would lead to the wholesale destruction of agricultural lands, watersheds, and other critical ecosystems…” Kalikasan national coordinator Clemente Bautista said.

“…The fact that the DENR’s national mining audit found 68 percent of commercially operating mines means the country’s mining industry is in no position to safely manage additional open-pit mines,” Bautista said.

In…1996…the open-pit mine of the Marcopper mining company…caused a massive mine spill that poured 1.6 million metric tons of toxic mine tailings into the Boac River….

Water samples in affected river tributaries exhibited heavy metal contamination 1,300 percent above human tolerable levels….

In 2015…Rapu-Rapu open-pit mine…was left unrehabilitated….

Water tests demonstrated continuing toxic acid mine drainage generation in one of the creeks downstream from the abandoned mine, registering extreme acidity….

The groups urged the Duterte government to reinstitute the open pit mine ban as a moratorium on all new projects using this technology until new mining policy reforms are put in place.