Heavy machinery has begun operating at a coal mining site on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. The concession is held by three subsidiaries of Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp. , which estimates the mine will produce 180 million metric
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews / 18 April) – Presidential candidate and labor leader Leodegario “Ka Leody” de Guzman marched in the streets of this city Monday to support moves to retain the ban on open-pit mining in South Cotabato. He is the
SURIGAO DEL SUR (MindaNews) – Cantilan is “no mining town.”
This was the message of some 1,000 residents as they staged a four-kilometer march Monday to oppose the entry of two mining firms.
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews/29 April) — – Construction of the Tampakan project in South Cotabato may yet be the single largest investment ever for Mindanao, Richard Laufmann, Indophil Resources NL chief executive officer, said.
Last week, Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) announced the construction of the Tampakan project would cost $5.2 billion, including provision for associated infrastructure like power plant and ports.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (April 25) – The National democratic Front (NDF) in Far South Mindanao has ordered the New People’s Army to arrest on sight top officials of mining company Sagittarius Mines Inc. and several Army officers in connection with the murder of anti-mining activist Eliezer ‘Boy’ Billanes.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/22 Apr) – Catholic church leaders today challenged residents to take up a bigger fight against the proposed 200-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Sarangani province as they warned anew of a possible widespread environmental destruction in the area should the multimillion power project eventually push through.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/22 Apr) – Mining firm Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) is inching closer towards utilizing the controversial open-pit mining method for its proposed large-scale copper and gold mining project in the tri-boundaries of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Davao del Sur following the completion of the company's extended pre-feasibility study.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/31 March) – Officials from the Australian Embassy and top honchos from the Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI) held a closed-door meeting with ranking military and police officials on security issues in the region in a posh restaurant here Monday evening.
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KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/10 March) – Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez and other church leaders here have urged authorities to conduct a thorough and speedy investigation on the killing of staunch anti-mining leader Eliezer Billanes at around 4 p.m. Monday.
Billanes, 46, married with three children and chair of the anti-mining group, Soccsksargends – Agenda, was gunned down four hours after his three-hour dialogue with barangay officials and an Army lieutenant following death threats he received, allegedly coming from the military.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/08 March) – The Mamanwa tribe has lifted the barricade at the entrance of the production site of the Taganito Mining Corporation (TMC) in Claver, Surigao del Norte and chieftains are preparing a general assembly on March 12 to settle an internal conflict over who should benefit from the “largest royalty payment” ever made to a Philippine tribe in mining history.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/02 March) — Fourteen years after it was signed into law, the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 or Republic Act 7942 has failed to bring development to the indigenous communities, a lumad leader today said.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/22 February) – The estimated 400 families of Mamanwas in five towns in Surigao del Norte ought to be celebrating: they now have P51.5 million, the “largest royalty payment” made by a mining firm to a Philippine tribe, in their bank account. And there will be more payments, for 2008 and every year thereafter, not only from the Taganito Mining Corporation (TMC) but the two other mining firms operating in their ancestral domain.
But no one is celebrating. Instead, there is “kagubot” (trouble).
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 February) – The “largest royalty payment” made by a firm to indigenous peoples in the Philippines for its mining operations in the latter’s ancestral domain was deposited Thursday by the Taganito Mining Corporation (TMC) to the bank account of the Mamanwa association in Surigao del Norte.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 February) — The mining firm has deposited P51.5 million to the Surigao City bank account of the Mamanwa association but Datu Reynante Buklas told MindaNews in a telephone interview that they will continue to barricade the production site of the Taganito Mining Corporation (TMC) in Claver, Surigao del Norte until the amount is deposited to the joint account of Datu Alfredo Olorico and himself in Butuan City.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/19 Feb) — A Benedictine nun has accused soldiers of detaining her and three environmental activists in the town of Cateel, Davao Oriental province on Feb. 16.
Sr. Stella Matutina said during the eight hours that they were briefly detained, soldiers of the Army 67th Infantry Battalion poked their guns at them, apparently mistaking them for communist guerillas.
"Mamma Mia! I thought that would be the end of us. Their Armalite rifles are so big," the nun told reporters during a press conference initiated by the Sisters Association in Mindanao (SAMIN).
TAGANITO, Claver, Surigao del Norte (MindaNews/19 February) – Representatives of the Mamanwa tribe here have vowed to continue the barricade they set up since January 29 until the Taganito Mining Corporation (TMC) pays the royalty/share due them.
TMC officials said they are willing and ready to pay the P51.5 million royalty from July 2006 to December 2007 but are awaiting guidance from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) on whose bank account the amount would be deposited.
TAGANITO, Claver, Surigao del Norte (MindaNews/19 February) – There are no missing Mamanwa protesters, tribal leaders here said.
Datu Joel Buklas, Datu Reynante Buklas and Datu Alfredo Olorico told MindaNews that they have no missing members, contrary to earlier reports.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/08 February) — Some 400 members of the Mamanwa tribe are now on their second week of staging a “human barricade” along the highway of Taganito in Claver, Surigao del Norte, demanding their right to one percent royalty from the gross output of the operations of four mining firms there.
Mamanwa members earlier sent notice of termination to the mining firms, informing them they will no longer allow mining in their ancestral lands, claiming the firms failed to pay their one percent royalty fees since 1997.
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/ 01 Feburary) — The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) in Northern Mindanao said it is the local government of Cagayan de Oro that issued permits for small-scale mining operations in the East Iponan Watershed that, along with wanton destruction of the remaining forests, were blamed for the flash floods that sent hundreds of residential houses under water in early January.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/27 January) – A moratorium on mining is needed if the Philippines is to avoid a rice shortage in the long term, foreign environment experts today said in a presentation of a study done in six mining sites across the country.
TAMPAKAN, South Cotabato (MindaNews/13 January) – Investors may have spent billions of pesos for the development of a world-class copper and gold project here, but local church officials have remained firm on their stance to oppose mining operations in the province.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/05 January) — Marbel Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez has renewed his call for the immediate passage of the proposed environment code of South Cotabato, which includes a ban on open-pit mining in the area.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/11 May) — The proposed environment code of South Cotabato province is making officials of a big mining firm nervous as it will ban the use of open-pit mining.
The foreign-backed Sagittarius Mines, Inc. had earlier expressed it prefers open-pit mining for its Tampakan copper and gold project.
IPIL, Zamboanga Sibugay – "A cheap public relations stunt," a Lumad leader said of the Canadian-backed TVI Resource Development Philippines' announcement that it has ended its $25-million Canatuan gold and silver project in Zamboanga del Norte.
MATI, Davao Oriental (MindaNews/19 Apr) — Davao Oriental may have one of the country’s richest mining potentials, but Gov. Corazon Malanyaon prefers to downplay it, preferring to promote agriculture instead and the ecology.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / April 4) – Illegally cut timber was discovered hidden behind a stack of hollow blocks and mounds of sands inside a core farm of the Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) in Tampakan, South Cotabato.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/03 April) — Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez has warned of a possible water crisis in the downstream areas of the tri-boundaries of Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Davao del Sur when the proposed large-scale copper and gold mining project in the area starts operating within the next two years.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/02 April) — Hundreds of civilians are being trained as “barangay tanods” (village guards or paramilitary elements) to serve as “supplemental” security forces for Sagittarius Mines, Inc., a move Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez says is “not very good” as “we are becoming violent.”
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/02 April) – Former Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Paul Dominguez said he was surprised that the Valentin Palamine Command of the New People's Army had charged him in its revolutionary court for his alleged involvement in “deceit, coercion and murder” in the mining area, saying he is no longer connected with Sagittarius Mines, Inc.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/29 March) — The Valentin Palamine Command of the New People's Army in Far South Mindanao on Friday said it will launch more punitive attacks against Sagittarius Mines, Inc. whose base camp in Tampakan, South Cotabato the communist-led armed rebels burned down on New Year's Day.
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/19 March) — At least 48 large-scale mining applications have been filed in Bukidnon covering hundreds of thousands of hectares even if the local government has expressed opposition to the entry of large-scale mining, an official of the Bukidnon Environment and Natural Resources Office (BENRO) said.
BUTUAN CITY (MindaNews/11 March) — A controversial small-scale nickel mining firm which shut down its operations six months ago will soon reopen under a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) but on the same mining site in Tubay, Agusan del Norte.
BUTUAN CITY (MindaNews/06 March) – Workers of United Philippine Drillers (UPD), a drilling contractor commissioned by Kalayaan Copper Gorld Resources Inc for exploration activities in barangay Anislagan, Placer, Surigao del Norte, were forced to abandon their camp Thursday after farmers observed their second month of human barricade to block their entry to the mine site.
MATI, Davao Oriental (MindaNews/04 March) — Protesters from affected communities here picketed Monday the office of BHP Billiton, their spokesperson reading a statement announcing the filing in Metro Manila of several petitions against the “legality and constitutionality “ of the Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) and the Financial Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAA) under the 1995 Philippine Mining Act.
LAKE SEBU, South Cotabato (MindaNews/27 Feb) – Downstream areas of the mountainous tri-boundaries of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Davao del Sur provinces are at risk of devastating flashfloods and landslides once a proposed large-scale copper and gold mining project in the area will commence, a top official of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) warned.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/13 Feb) — The world's sixth largest mining firm has reportedly rejected a takeover bid of Brazilian mining giant Vale for the former's vast interests worldwide.
In a report that appeared in several websites, XStrata Plc reportedly considered the $40 per share offer of Vale too low and is holding out from the multi-billion takeover talks.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/30 January) — At least 49 companies have filed 64 applications to explore gold, silver and other mineral resources in Southwestern Mindanao, a recent report from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) shows.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / January 25) – Sagittarius Mines, Incorporated (SMI) announced Friday that it has hired the services of Catena Security, part of a network of leading provider of security guards.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/23 Jan) — A multibillion-dollar mega-deal between two of the world's biggest mining companies could have far-ranging implications in the ownership status of Tampakan-based mining firm Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI).
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/15 Jan) — An umbrella organization of various groups opposed to mining has urged the provincial board of South Cotabato to ban open-pit mining in the province, citing a previous resolution of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) opposing the operation of Western Mining Corp.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / January 11) – Despite having allegedly hired a former member of a British elite security force, mining firm Sagittarius Mines Inc. still failed to anticipate and prevent a New Year's Day rebel raid that wrought at least P10 million damages in property of the company.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/09 January) — The bishop here condemned the “terroristic act” against Sagittarius Mines, Inc. on New Year’s dawn but says they are “not surprised” it happened, having warned earlier that the presence of large-scale mining “would affect our peace and order situation.”
IPIL, Zamboanga Sibugay (MindaNews/09 January) — “Consult us first.”
This was the reaction of Wilfredo Sanggayan, the indigenous peoples’ (IP) representative to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of this province, to a published report that mining firm Pacifica Inc. made a P50-million loan to Zam-Iron Mining Corp. for the latter’s exploration of metal deposits in the Zamboanga Peninsula.
TAMPAKAN, South Cotabato (MindaNews/07 January) — Suspected New People’s Army rebels abducted a militiaman from the minesite of Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) along their escape route after the New Year’s dawn raid at the firm’s base camp.
ST. PETER, Malaybalay City (MindaNews/January 5) — At least 38 mining firms have applied for permits to exploit precious metals in Bukidnon, which, if approved, would replicate what logging companies did in the 1970s: partition among themselves the province's resource-rich areas for their profit-making ventures.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / January 4) – Sagittarius Mines, Inc will not abandon its exploration activities in Tampakan town, South Cotabato despite losing P12 million to a guerrilla raid in its base camp in the town in the early hours of the New Year.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/2 Jan) — To prevent another attack on the facilities of Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI), elements of the Philippine Army will be fielded to the company’s base camp in Tampakan, South Cotabato.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/01 January) — Suspected communist rebels stormed early today a base camp of a mining company in the hinterlands of Tampakan town in South Cotabato and burned at least two buildings, police said this morning.
ST. PETER, Malaybalay City (MindaNews/29 December) – The highest official in this village wants residents here and in neighboring villages in the Upper Pulangui area to decide if they would allow mining firms to operate here.
Domingo Hingpit, St. Peter barangay chair, said he wants the people, not just the barangay council, to decide on the issue.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/23 December) – T’boli natives and a cooperative are fighting for mining rights over a 21-hectare gold-rich land in Barangay Kematu.
Constancio Paye Jr., Mines and Geosciences Bureau – Region XII director, said they tried but failed to settle on Wednesday the conflict between T’boli natives and the T’boli Minahang Bayan Multi-Purpose Cooperative.
