Lafayette seeks to resume Rapu-Rapu mining operations

First posted 04:40pm (Mla time) Oct 05, 2006 XFN-Asia

http://news.inq7.net/archive_article/index.php?ver=1&index=1&story_id=24968

LAFAYETTE Philippines Inc. said it would ask the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to allow it to resume commercial mining operations at its copper, gold, silver and zinc mine on Rapu-Rapu Island in central Philippines.

Lafayette Philippines senior vice president and legal counsel Bayani Agabin said the company wants to begin normal operations ahead of the expiry of the 60-day extension of its government operating license, which was granted by the DENR last Sept. 14. The mine was forced to shut down on Sept. 11 after the temporary operating license expired in September.

However, the mine was allowed to do a 60-day test run to assess the effectiveness of its upgraded environmental safety facilities.

The mine was closed in October last year after two mining tailing spills.
"Typhoon Xangsane already showed that our emergency response procedures are efficient and there may no longer be a need to continue the test commissioning of our base metals plant. We have also met all the DENR requirements for us to resume commercial operations," said Agabin in an interview with XFN-Asia.

Before Xangsane hit the central and northern parts of the country last week, the base metals plant was already producing both copper and zinc concentrates under the third and last phase of the test run.

The plant, however, has been shutdown since Thursday last week due to Xangsane and power has yet to be restored, said Agabin.

"We expect electricity to be restored in a day or two so that we could resume the test run. Depending on data from our operations, it is likely that we will file a motion for a 'permanent lifting order' ahead of the expiration of the 60-day extension, because there have been no untoward incidents," he said.

"The data we have, so far, show that we are fully compliant with the standards for water quality, and all other requirements by DENR have been met.

The project started commercial production in July last year with an average output of about 2,500 ounces of gold a month.

Lafayette Philippines is the local unit of Australia's Lafayette Mining Ltd.
($1= 50.05 pesos, 1.34 Australian dollars)

‘Milenyo’ spares environment in run at Lafayette

http://www.malaya.com.ph/oct04/metro1.htm

TYPHOON "Milenyo" which ripped across eastern and northern Philippines last Thursday week left key parts of the country’s first mine developed by foreigners in decades severely damaged, but caused no environmental damage, Lafayette Mining Ltd. and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau [MGB] said on Tuesday.

Kay Donehue, a spokeswoman for Australian-listed Lafayette, which is running the mine under a temporary operating order after two cyanide spills last year led to a temporary closure, said a waste tailings storage facility was among equipment damaged by the storm.

"There was no environmental damage as a result of the storm," Donehue said from the company’s Melbourne headquarters.

This was confirmed by MGB’s Mining Environment Division chief Michael Cabalda. "Lafayette is okay. The tailings dam is functioning well. Our team was there during the typhoon. They are still monitoring until now," he told reporters in an interview.

Donehue said the mine and ore processing facilities on the remote Rapu-Rapu island in Albay were shut down as the typhoon hit the region, knocking out power and communication lines within the mainland. "We did not want to risk anything, certainly while the typhoon was going through," she said.

The typhoon damaged some buildings on the mine site and the water pumps at the tailings storage facilities, she said. "We will be resuming operations by about Thursday," she added.

Cabalda said mining expert Marcelo Bolaño, connected with Benguet Corp., has been chosen to act as the third party who will review the structure of Lafayette’s tailings dam and its acid mine drainage program.

Cabalda’s statement on the stability of Lafayette’s mine facilities came after Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes ordered a geological assessment of mine structures and geohazard areas in the country.

Lafayette was fined P10.7 million and its operations suspended in December 2005 by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources after two mine tailings spills last year, which released mercury, cyanide and other toxic metals into the environment.

Before the suspension, Lafayette was forecast to generate revenues of $350 million a year from production of 10,000 tons of copper in concentrate, 14,000 tons of zinc, 50,000 ounces of gold and 600,000 ounces of silver.
Total copper and zinc concentrate inventory as of Sept. 25 stood at 580 tons, Donehue said.

South Korea’s LG Co International Ltd. and the South Korean government’s resources investment arm KORES together hold 26 percent of Lafayette Philippines Inc. The rest is owned by the Australian company.

Environmentalists have opposed a Philippine law that allows 100 percent foreign ownership of local mining projects, up from 40 percent previously.
Lafayette’s shares closed down 1.3 percent at A$0.78.

– Reuters and Reinir C. Padua