Questions of Policies : A visit to Rapu-Rapu
QUESTIONS OF POLICIES First posted 00:23am (Mla time) July 10, 2006
By Honesto General
Inquirer
http://news.inq7.net/archive_article/index.php?ver=1&index=1&story_id=8933
Editor's Note: Published on page B6 of the July 10, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
AS A BICOLANO and an unabashed pro-mining advocate, I have been following the Rapu-Rapu story with great interest.
I spent the better part of last Tuesday at Rapu-Rapu. I was the guest of longtime friend Sonny Dominguez who is now the chief executive officer of the place.
I took the early morning PAL flight to Legazpi. From Legazpi, I took a pleasant one and a half hour ferryboat ride to Lafayette's mining operations in Rapu-Rapu Island.
In the air-conditioned, well-appointed main office (I felt I was in an Ayala Avenue office), I went through a three-stage Power Point briefing conducted by three lovely Bicolanas (this was the part I enjoyed the most).
The first stage covered the safety rules any visitor is expected to follow. The second stage, conducted by a chemical engineer, was a thorough technical description of the project. The third stage described the project's social impact on the community.
After an excellent chicken and vegetable lunch at the mess hall, I was brought around. I had to wear the prescribed hard hat, goggles, steel-toed shoes and a vest of bright yellow plastic netting.
The municipality of Rapu-Rapu consists of three islands: Rapu-Rapu, Batan and another island whose name escapes me. Rapu-Rapu island lies about 40 nautical miles off the Pacific Ocean side of Albay. The island has an area of approximately 5,000 hectares, about the same size as Manila.
The mine is on a hill in the middle of the island and is about seven kilometers (about the distance from Makati to Cubao) from the poblacion. The aboveground facilities--mill, plant, storage tanks, housing, tailing pond, offices, mess hall, roads, etc.--cover 180 hectares.
There are no below-ground facilities because Rapu-Rapu is an open pit mine. This means that the ore body is buried not too deeply. It is economical to merely bulldoze away the earth, or the overburden, covering the ore body.
The pit--where all the digging takes place--has an area of only 17 hectares. That is less than half the size of the Ayala Center in Makati. The bottom of the ore body is about 100 meters deep. That is about the length of a city block at Ayala Avenue.
At great expense (I am told about $400 million), Lafayette has done everything that the DENR has asked. For example, the concrete water tank where the spillage occurred has been expanded to handle the heaviest rainfall. Each electrically driven pump is backed up by diesel driven pump. This way, in case of a power outage, the diesel pumps take over.
Also, the detoxified wastewater is piped into a holding pond, which is really a small valley hemmed in by an earth dam. After the solid matter settles, the water is recycled back to the plant. No wastewater goes to the sea.
As an insurance broker of long standing, I can confidently recommend to the most prudent insurer that the Rapu-Rapu mine is insurable against all types of risks.
During the three months that the mine was operating, all the gold ore was dug up. The ore was actually an overburden covering the deposits of copper, silver and zinc.
The plan is to dig up the rest of the ore in six years. After that, the decommissioning and clean-up prescribed in the mining act will begin. The buildings and machinery will be dismantled and shipped out, probably to another mine site. The pit will be filled up with water. The anti-erosion and beautification program shall have long taken root. Rapu-Rapu will be a lovely park, to the delight, I am sure, of the strictest environmentalist.
Compared to the huge open pit mines of Marcopper in Marinduque and Atlas Consolidated in Cebu, the Rapu-Rapu mine is teeny-weeny. When everything is over, Rapu-Rapu will probably rate an asterisk in the long mining history of the Philippines. Future generations may well wonder what the fuss was all about.
The mining act prescribes that the three barangays directly affected by the mine, the municipality and the province will each receive their fixed shares of the annual gross income of the mine. What the local governments should do is set up a self-sustaining foundation to catch all that money so that the people will reap the fruits of the mine in perpetuity.
Last Friday, DENR Secretary Angelo Reyes gave the go-ahead to start the 30-day test run. The large staff of Filipino engineers, male and female, is supremely confident Rapu-Rapu will pass the test with flying colors.
By Honesto General
Inquirer
http://news.inq7.net/archive_article/index.php?ver=1&index=1&story_id=8933
Editor's Note: Published on page B6 of the July 10, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
AS A BICOLANO and an unabashed pro-mining advocate, I have been following the Rapu-Rapu story with great interest.
I spent the better part of last Tuesday at Rapu-Rapu. I was the guest of longtime friend Sonny Dominguez who is now the chief executive officer of the place.
I took the early morning PAL flight to Legazpi. From Legazpi, I took a pleasant one and a half hour ferryboat ride to Lafayette's mining operations in Rapu-Rapu Island.
In the air-conditioned, well-appointed main office (I felt I was in an Ayala Avenue office), I went through a three-stage Power Point briefing conducted by three lovely Bicolanas (this was the part I enjoyed the most).
The first stage covered the safety rules any visitor is expected to follow. The second stage, conducted by a chemical engineer, was a thorough technical description of the project. The third stage described the project's social impact on the community.
After an excellent chicken and vegetable lunch at the mess hall, I was brought around. I had to wear the prescribed hard hat, goggles, steel-toed shoes and a vest of bright yellow plastic netting.
The municipality of Rapu-Rapu consists of three islands: Rapu-Rapu, Batan and another island whose name escapes me. Rapu-Rapu island lies about 40 nautical miles off the Pacific Ocean side of Albay. The island has an area of approximately 5,000 hectares, about the same size as Manila.
The mine is on a hill in the middle of the island and is about seven kilometers (about the distance from Makati to Cubao) from the poblacion. The aboveground facilities--mill, plant, storage tanks, housing, tailing pond, offices, mess hall, roads, etc.--cover 180 hectares.
There are no below-ground facilities because Rapu-Rapu is an open pit mine. This means that the ore body is buried not too deeply. It is economical to merely bulldoze away the earth, or the overburden, covering the ore body.
The pit--where all the digging takes place--has an area of only 17 hectares. That is less than half the size of the Ayala Center in Makati. The bottom of the ore body is about 100 meters deep. That is about the length of a city block at Ayala Avenue.
At great expense (I am told about $400 million), Lafayette has done everything that the DENR has asked. For example, the concrete water tank where the spillage occurred has been expanded to handle the heaviest rainfall. Each electrically driven pump is backed up by diesel driven pump. This way, in case of a power outage, the diesel pumps take over.
Also, the detoxified wastewater is piped into a holding pond, which is really a small valley hemmed in by an earth dam. After the solid matter settles, the water is recycled back to the plant. No wastewater goes to the sea.
As an insurance broker of long standing, I can confidently recommend to the most prudent insurer that the Rapu-Rapu mine is insurable against all types of risks.
During the three months that the mine was operating, all the gold ore was dug up. The ore was actually an overburden covering the deposits of copper, silver and zinc.
The plan is to dig up the rest of the ore in six years. After that, the decommissioning and clean-up prescribed in the mining act will begin. The buildings and machinery will be dismantled and shipped out, probably to another mine site. The pit will be filled up with water. The anti-erosion and beautification program shall have long taken root. Rapu-Rapu will be a lovely park, to the delight, I am sure, of the strictest environmentalist.
Compared to the huge open pit mines of Marcopper in Marinduque and Atlas Consolidated in Cebu, the Rapu-Rapu mine is teeny-weeny. When everything is over, Rapu-Rapu will probably rate an asterisk in the long mining history of the Philippines. Future generations may well wonder what the fuss was all about.
The mining act prescribes that the three barangays directly affected by the mine, the municipality and the province will each receive their fixed shares of the annual gross income of the mine. What the local governments should do is set up a self-sustaining foundation to catch all that money so that the people will reap the fruits of the mine in perpetuity.
Last Friday, DENR Secretary Angelo Reyes gave the go-ahead to start the 30-day test run. The large staff of Filipino engineers, male and female, is supremely confident Rapu-Rapu will pass the test with flying colors.
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