SMI and RCBC have not forged an agreement to provide loans to landowners affected by the $5.9 billion Tampakan mining project, the largest undeveloped copper and gold reserve in Southeast Asia.

Facebook user Luiz Crizaldo posted that RCBC, in partnership with SMI, is ready to provide easy loans to the B’laan  indigenous peoples whose lands are rented by the mining company.

“RCBC and Sagittarius Mines Inc are join together for the indigenous people who’s affected areas from South Cotabato! We “RCBC are helping those who wants to loan and give a chance to indigenous people like (Blaan) whos affected from mining operations! (sic)” he captioned the post.

SMI has belied the two-month old fake post that can still be accessed on Facebook as of Wednesday, May 8.

“Babala (fake na programang pautang),” the company said in statement.

“Walang katotohanan ang kumakalat sa Facebook na mayroong programang pautang and Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) at RCBC,” it added.

(Translation: Warning on the fake loan program. There is no truth to a post circulating on Facebook that Sagittarius Mines, Inc (SMI) and RCBC are offering a loan program.)

SMI said that Earl James A. Flores, Luis C. Crizaldo and Ruby Anne P. Secades are not connected to the company.

Those names were included in the fake post as contact persons for landowners who are interested in obtaining loans.

The Tampakan project is within the ancestral domain of the B’laan indigenous peoples, an estimated 4,000 of whom would be displaced once excavation begins.

In October 2020, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples granted the Tampakan project a certification that the indigenous cultural communities have given their consent to the mining venture within their ancestral domain and that the Free, Prior and Informed Consent process “has been satisfactorily complied with by the company.”

Based on a company study, the Tampakan project has the potential to yield an average of 375,000 metric tons of copper and 360,000 ounces of gold in concentrate annually throughout the 17-year life of the mine.

The company plans to employ open-pit mining in extracting the minerals that are located near the surface of the earth. The province of South Cotabato, however, has a 14-year-old ordinance that bans open-pit mining.

Still, the firm eyed to start commercial mining operations in 2026.

As with all our other reports, MindaNews welcomes leads or suggestions from the public to potential fact-check stories. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)