Majority of the miners instructed to stop gold processing operations in Diwalwal, Monkayo in Compostela Valley complied with the order despite their slow transfer to the new government designated processing areas, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) reported.
According to Chamberlain J. Babiera, the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer of Compostela Valley, mining operators have been undergoing various stages of transferring to the designated processing areas by DENR located in Sitio Mabatas which is five kilometers down the slope of Diwalwal’s active mines and tunneling operation.
“There are plenty who stopped their operations but have not yet transferred due to the cost…in the transfer, which, according to the plant owners, they don’t have yet,” Babiera was quoted saying in an article published by Business Mirror.
Although the cease and desist order (CDO) was only served recently, the DENR has been talking to plant owners and operators about their need to halt operations and transfer for years even before the final serving last March 15.
DENR Assistant Secretary for Field Operations-Eastern Mindanao Ruth Tawantawan, OIC and in concurrent capacity, also said their agency provided the miners of Diwalwal a final grace period between October last year and March this year.
Tawantawan also said in a DENR briefing paper that there are more than 300 operators and plant owners of 1,797 ball mills and 31 carbon in-pulp processors in Diwalwal which needed to be served CDOs due the unmonitored and excessive dumping of toxic mines tailing laden with mercury and cyanide in Naboc River.
Following initial findings of high traces of mercury among fishes and other marine species in Agusan River and Davao Gulf, a national investigation and mineral sampling of the Naboc River which empties into said bodies of water was conducted during the 1990s.
Meanwhile, Babierba revealed that initially there were unconfirmed reports of some plant owners who extended their milling to accommodate their ready-to-mill mine ores after the CDO service.
Apparently, not all plant owners were served with the order for lack of plant personnel present during the serving, no official representative of the owner to receive the CDO, while some plainly refused to receive the CDO.
“However, substitute service was done through official registered mailing of the CDO by the MGB [Mines and Geosciences Bureau]. Legally the CDOs were received by the concerned plant owners,” Babierba added.
