KASIBU, Nueva Vizcaya—An Australian mining firm, which runs the Didipio Mine in this upland town, has commissioned the operation of a $6.1-million water-treatment facility at the project site.
“For a large-scale mining project like Didipio Mine, employing a water-treatment plant equipped with clarifying systems is environmentally necessary,” said Ramoncito Gozar, OceanaGold (Philippines) Inc. (Ogpi) senior vice president for Communications and External Affairs.
“Low-quality water gets extracted and treated then eventually, after the cleaning process, the already-clean water is recycled back to the ecosystem with improved water balance that provides positive environmental impact.”
The water-treatment plant at the Didipio Mine has a capacity of 47,520 cubic meters a day where online system parameters are digitally monitored through remote control.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has granted the Didipio project with a wastewater discharge permit for Tailings Storage Facility.
It requires compliance within Class D Effluent Water Quality Standards which has a Total Suspended Solid (TSS) limit of 150 parts per million (ppm).
“Our environment team sees to it that TSS level of Tailings Storage Facility water discharge is within the set criteria of 50 ppm to 150 ppm from the start of our operations.
But with OceanaGold’s increasing “green field” projects and programs at the pipeline, we are already taking our water-quality improvements to the next level,” Gozar explained.
“We initiated and constructed the water-treatment plant to have a cleaner water discharge that could exceed compliance-requirement standards prescribed by the Environment Management Bureau.”
OceanaGold’s Tailings Storage Facility is cyanide-free and Didipio ore qualities have high neutralizing capacity preventing acid mine drainage, he said.
The Didipio Project Environment Team continuously conducts research to further improve water-quality at the mine site with a daily water-quality monitoring conducted by an in-house laboratory chemist. The group also breeds fish at the treatment plant as healthy water-quality indicator, he added.
“OceanaGold strives to exceed industry benchmarks through the implementation of innovative environmental programs and research across operations.
Building the water-treatment plant demonstrates the company’s commitment to environmental stewardship, safety, compliance and continuous improvement,” Gozar said. “After painstaking years of explorations, ‘searching for the heart of gold’ is over and the dream is now a reality,” Gozar said, referring to the Didipio Gold-Copper Project.
He, however, emphasized that after reaching commercial production, discipline in all aspects of the mining operation must be observed throughout the duration of the project’s 17-year mine life.
“The project runs according to world-class standards and high-tech operations using computer-aided concentrate processing system for precision.
“We hate to see any margin of error because we are aware of the punishing consequences the project may suffer. We cannot afford breaking the mining laws because we are conscious that severely violating it would shut down a big-time investment,” Gozar said.
A geologist by profession, Gozar said the project is environmentally compliant and safety conscious to the highest level in its operations and remains committed to ethical, responsible and sustainable mineral development.
Cagayan Valley Mines and Geosciences Bureau Regional Director Mario Ancheta said his office, which regulates mining projects in the region, keeps a tight watch on the first large-scale mining project in the country granted a financial or technical assistance agreement contract with the national government during the term of former President Fidel Ramos.
Councilor Alberto Binlayan of Cabarroguis, Quirino, a resident of Dingasan Village on the downstream of Didipio, said the company’s move of putting up the water-treatment facility speeds up the water-cleaning process employed by the project.
“It shows that there is really a need to keep the prescribed water-quality standards, literally, at all cost,” Binlayan said.
When asked how the company would address natural disasters like major flooding and environmental degradation of existing waterways, Ogpi Country Director Bradley Norman said OceanaGold works closely with the local community to minimize the impact of natural disasters on local waterways.
“On a corporate level, we have an arrangement with the International River Foundation [IRF] which works in partnership around the world to promote the sustainable restoration and management of river basins and waterways,” he said.
“Through encouraging local community participation with waterway restoration and management, the IRF is taking a lead role in the Philippines to help combat and reduce the negative effects of small-scale mining on river systems,” Norman said.
Image credits: Leonardo Perante II