Two provincial board members of the South Cotabato province withdrew their support for the amendment of the province’s environment code on open-pit mining.
In a report by Rappler, Rose Grace Achurra and Alyssa Marie Fale apologized to the public following the amendment of the provincial law that lifted the 12-year-old open-pit mining ban in South Cotabato, which has been blocking the Tampakan copper-gold project.
Governor Reynaldo Tamayo also vetoed the amended environment code on June 3 after saying that Sagittarius Mines Inc. can still proceed with the project with Republic Act 7942 or the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 supersedes their local legislation.
Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) coalition chairman Rene Pamplona lauded the two provincial board members for the “change of heart,” and added that other environmental groups are hopeful that more board members would join them in opposing the lifting of the open-pit mining ban.
The Tampakan project is a 10,000 hectare project across not only South Cotabato, but also Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani ,and Davao del Sur. It previously had an estimated development cost of $5.9 billion before the provincial ban was imposed in 2010.
The mining project has the potential to yield around 375,000 tons of copper and around 360,000 ounces of gold in concentrate per annum in its 17-year mine life.
The Tampakan mining project is a 25-year old contract granted to Australian firm Western Mining Corporation in 1995. The rights were transferred to Sagittarius Mines, Inc., a subsidiary of Indophil Resources Phils. Inc., in 2001. The contract expired on March 21, 2020, but was extended by another 12 years in 2016.
Pres. Rodrigo Duterte lifted the ban on open-pit mining in late-2021 as an attempt to revive the economy following the COVID-19 pandemic and the onslaught of Typhoon Odette.
