Court blocks open-pit ban in Zamboanga del Norte

TVI Resource Development (Phils.) Inc. scored an initial victory when a local court granted its request for a preliminary injunction against a provincial ordinance banning open pit mining in Zamboanga del Norte.

This will allow the company to continue operating the Canatuan mine in the province while it challenges the legality of the ordinance in court.

Branch 6 of the Regional Trial Court of Dipolog granted the injunction on January 4.

“TVI is entitled to an injunction because it would suffer grave and irreparable damage and injury if the ordinance would be implemented,” a copy of the resolution stated.

The provincial ordinance supposedly took effect on November 6 after it saw print in three local papers. As a result, TVIRD now only has one year to wrap up its Canatuan project.

The mine in Zamboanga del Norte still has enough mineral resources to enable TVIRD to operate it for four more years.

The company is now preparing for a legal battle to prove that the ordinance is “invalid and unconstitutional,” TVIRD president Eugene T. Mateo said in a statement.

More and more members of the business community in Zamboanga del Norte have come out in the open to oppose the provincial ordinance. About 45,000 Subanons, apart from members of the Mindanao Chapter of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, have signed a petition against the ordinance.

Also, some local officials are now calling for a repeal of the open pit mining ban and have thrown their support behind the copper miner, the company said.

TVIRD, the Philippine affiliate of TVI Pacific Inc. of Canada, stands to lose $448 million in gross revenue if the Canatuan copper-gold mine closes prematurely due to the open pit ban in Zamboanga del Norte.

The yearly gross revenue of the mine, which is located at Sitio (settlement) Canatuan, Barangay (village) Tabayo, Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, is about $112 million, company data showed.

TVIRD also said that a “great part” of its revenue would have been spent on operating cost, royalty to IPs or Indigenous People, and community development.

“We strongly believe the powers to be assumed by the province under the ordinance, and by the provincial governor of Zamboanga del Norte, are unconstitutional. While the court order allows TVIRD to continue its operations in Canatuan unimpeded, we will continue to relentlessly pursue ultimate relief from what we view as an unconstitutional local legislation,” TVI Pacific president and CEO Cliff James said in a separate statement.

Government figures for the first half of 2011 showed that the Canatuan mine accounted for 13.54 percent of the Philippines’ copper metal production and 11.35 percent of copper content in concentrates.

Canatuan also pitched in 0.35 percent of the country’s gold output and 27.53 percent of silver production.