Church unfazed by mining firm’s show of gains

THE local Catholic Church in Koronadal in Mindanao won’t ease up its campaign against the Tampakan copper-gold mining project of Sagittarius Mines, Inc. despite the company’s economic contribution as contained in its sustainability report launched Wednesday in Davao City.

“Our opposition against SMI’s open-pit method is non-negotiable,” said Father Romeo Catedral, social action director of the Diocese of Marbel.

According to the 50-page Tampakan Project Sustainability Report 2010, the company contributed P2.5 billion to the Philippine economy last year, which includes the local purchase of goods and services worth P656.1 million.

The company said it also paid P399 million in taxes and fees, of which P2.6 million or less than one percent went to the local government units.

But Allan Yaphockun, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry governor for Southwestern Mindanao, wondered where the company’s local expenditures went.

“I could not see or feel the so-called benefits of the Tampakan project to the local economy,” Yaphockun, a hardware store owner here, said in a separate interview.

Meanwhile, security and social acceptability continue to hound the Tampakan copper-gold project of Sagittarius Mines, Inc last year, the company’s sustainability report also stressed.

Mark Williams, Sagittarius Mines general manager, said the two factors were given increased focus because they were the major challenges during the period.

Xstrata Copper owns 62.5 percent of the controlling equity at Sagittarius Mines, which in 2008 and 2009 suffered from successful attacks launched by the communist New People’s Army rebels.

Report from MindaNews