(October 27, 2003) - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Mines and Geosciences Bureau (DENR-MGB) recently padlocked a gold processing plant in Buenavista, Quezon for operating without any valid permit.

MGB Director Horacio C. Ramos said the agency padlocked and sealed six vital installations in the Carbon In-Pulp (CIP) Plant of Mr. Bienvenido Uri located in Barangay Bulo in said town, rendering the facility un-operational.

“The CIP plant will only be allowed to operate once it has secured the necessary mineral processing permit and has met all the safety and environmental requirement provided for by law,” Ramos said.

Vital installations that were sealed, he said, included the flywheels of the repulper and leaching tanks, and a drain valve of one leaching tank.

The DENR-MGB Team, accompanied by Buenavista Mayor Ramon R. Reyes, padlocked the illegal CIP plant on October 16, 2003 by virtue of a Cease-and-Desist Order (CDO).

Earlier, a composite team from the DENR-MGB visited Buenavista, Quezon to conduct water quality monitoring of the river systems in the area and to gather ore and tailings samples for testing in the laboratory. It was then that the team learned that Uri was operating without a permit.

The DENR-MGB has recently intensified its monitoring activities in the area, which is being eyed as a possible “Minahang Bayan”.

Certain parts of Barangays Bulo and Cadlit of Buenavista, Quezon, are host to small-scale mining operations that serve as one of the prime sources of livelihood to majority of the residents. This prompted the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board (PMRB) of Quezon Province, with technical assistance from DENR-MGB, to propose that the area be declared a “Minahang Bayan,” an effort that was also being actively promoted by Mayor Reyes of Buenavista and Governor Wilfrido Enverga of Quezon Province.

“The declaration of the area as a ‘Minahang Bayan’ will pave the way for the rationalization of minerals development in the area, and will significantly reduce the environmental risks from small-scale mining operations,” Ramos said.

Mandated by Republic Act 7076 or the People’s Small-Scale Mining Act, the identification of Minahang Bayan is one of the government’s ways of recognizing the significant role small-scale mining plays in alleviating poverty in the countryside.

The DENR-MGB, through the proposed National Minerals Policy, is further seeking the formalization of the small-scale mining sector, which is seen to provide the basis for its legal, environmental, and administrative management by the Government. (With Reports from Percival Ladug)