July 31, 2016
DMCI Holdings Inc. said
it shut down its nickel-mining operations in two months, saying it could no
longer operate under the new administration.
“We could close it
[mining operations] down in 60 days,” Isidro Consunji, DMCI’s chairman and
president, told reporters last week.
“Should we decide to
shut down, I believe, more and more mining companies would follow suit. It is
no longer economically viable to operate under this condition, where mining
firms are being audited instead of the environmental compliance monitoring group,
which was tasked by the government to audit us,” Consunji said.
The
conglomerate, through its unit DMCI Mining Corp., has two nickel mining assets:
Berong Nickel Corp., which operates sites in Berong, Long Point, Moorsom and
Ulugan, all in Palawan, while Zambales Diversified Metals Corp. has a site in
Acoje, Zambales.
Both operations, which
employ an open pit mining technique in extracting nickel, chromite and iron
laterite for exports to China and Japan, were recently suspended by the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources for alleged violation of
environmental standards.
Such suspensions were
the result of Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez’s ongoing audit of all
mining companies in the country.
“The government should
be auditing the group that audits us; that’s the very reason this monitoring
team is there. They are tasked to monitor environmental compliance among mining
firms. The government should not conduct their own auditing,” Consunji said.
As of last week, Lopez,
who is vocal on her antimining advocacy, has suspended at least six mining
operations. Consunji said it is their mining employees who suffer the most
because of the indiscriminate suspension of mining operations by the
government.
“We have people working
for us, and whenever we are ordered [by the government] to stop our operations,
they are the ones who suffer the most and their families. How can they possibly
provide for the sustenance of their families if regulators keep on suspending
mining firms…the source of their income?” he said.
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