SIOCON, Philippines, 13 November 2005 — A Canadian mining firm operating on the remote southern Philippine town of Siocon said it has invested more than $24 million the past years, and is planning to spend more in a new expansion that will benefit the local economy and thousands of Filipino workers.

TVI has also spent millions of pesos and is putting more to help fund humanitarian and development projects not only in Siocon, but also in neighboring towns, to build schools and clinics, and roads and bridges for the benefit of the locals.

It continues to fund a massive environment cleanup of small scale mine tailings left behind by many illegal miners.

Organized in 1996, the TVI Resource Development (Phils) Inc., is currently into gold and silver mining operation in Mt. Canatuan, east of Siocon town in Zamboanga del Norte province, about 800 km south of Manila. It began an open pit gold mining project under a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement that it obtained in 1998.

TVI executives said they would soon start extracting copper and zinc found beneath deposits of gold and silver now currently being mined in an open pit around a 500-hectare production site.

“Next year, we will start mining copper and zinc, and this would be the real economic benefit for the Philippines. And there would be a lot of construction that would cost millions of pesos,” John Ridsdel, the TVI country manager, said in a briefing to presidential aide Jesus Dureza and Southern Philippines military chief Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan.

The Filipino officials toured the mining area on Wednesday afternoon and were surprised by the strict implementation of safety and environment protection TVI has set up in Mt. Canatuan.

Fully Wired

And Dureza and Adan were more surprised when they learned the mining area has a ready wireless Internet access and cellular phone services.

“It has really transformed, this mountain area now even has wireless Internet and cellular phone services. This is a big benefit for tens of thousands of people living here.

“Everything is in order, the milling area is clean and we are really surprised by the strict implementation of safety and the TVI’s concern about the protection of our environment,” Dureza told Arab News.

Many illegal small-scale miners continue to operate in Siocon despite a government campaign to prevent them from further damaging the environment. Illegal miners still use mercury and cyanide to extract and process gold from raw gossan ore, a decomposed rock that results from oxidized pyrites.

Big Yield

TVI claimed that it spends millions of pesos to clean up poisonous crude tailing abandoned by illegal miners.

TVI, at present, is producing at least 1 1/2 kilograms of gold a day, valued at nearly 8 million pesos, from 700 tons of gossan ore, according to Filipino mine engineer Segundo Villanueva, who oversees the operation in Mt. Canatuan, some 1,700 above sea level.

TVI plans to increase their operation from 700 tons of ore to about 1,200 tons a day. The Canatuan mining project began mining raw gossan ore and process gold and silver-bearing ore only last year.

“This (mining) operation has helped a lot of Filipinos. I have sent my children to school, built a small house and I am now happy with my job as a miner. I am proud because I have a descent job,” a former farmer, Ismael Suruho, said.

President Arroyo in February thanked TVI president Clifford James for the company’s long-standing commitment to the Philippines.

Rocky Dimaculangan, TVI’s public affairs director, said they currently employ more than 650 people, mostly Subanon tribesmen. Aside from several hundreds more in other indirect services.

Complaints

But many Subanon people claimed that Mt. Canatuan is part of their ancestral domain and is sacred to them. They said continuous mining operation in the area would destroy the mountain.

Dimaculangan said TVI is committed to transparent, environmentally responsible and socially acceptable exploration and mining practices.

“TVI has implemented an environmental protection and monitoring program at all of its exploration projects and these guidelines provide the best environmental management practices.

“TVI has helped a lot of locals, a lot of them. And we are happy because we are like one big family here. We all work here together and listen to each other,” Dimaculangan said.

He said the company is also holding regular dialogues in the different villages to educate the locals and brief them about their operation.

“We make sure we hold regular meetings with all the different groups, from environmentalists, the Church and a lot more. We tell them honestly what we are doing and they are very satisfied and we are happy about that,” he said.

Security is tight in Mt. Canatuan because of previous rebel attacks on workers.

In December 2002, suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels attacked a truck transporting miners and civilians and killed 13 people in Siocon. Five months later, some 200 MILF rebels raided the center of Siocon, set the public market and houses on fire, and then took several civilians as hostages.

Troops were not able to regain control of the town until later in the afternoon after fierce clashes that left at least 34 people dead.

The MILF has forged a cease-fire agreement with the government and is now negotiating peace in an effort to end more than three decades of hostilities in the south.

Adan has assured TVI executives that there is enough security forces in the province to protect the public and vital government installations from rebel attacks.

“We have enough forces to protect the public, government interests and investors from terror or rebel attacks,” said Adan.