By JONATHAN L
MAYUGA
THE Mines and
Geosciences Bureau (MGB) is set to order the dismantling of a Chinese mining
company caught operating illegally in three towns in CamNorte.
MGB Director
Leo Jasareno said the dismantling order will lead to the dismantling of the
mining facilities of Bohai Top
International Mining Corp.
The company’s
mining operation was the subject of a raid by the National Bureau of
Investigation (NBI) and the MGB recently.
A total of 14
Chinese were arrested by the NBI during the raid in Napaod, Benit and Labo,
Camarines Norte.
Jasareno said
all 14 suspects were charged before the Prosecutor’s Office of the Department
of Justice on Friday, Feb 7.
He said the
suspects were still of unknown nationality and is now the subject of further
investigation by the NBI.
The joint
MGB-NBI raid was done as part of the campaign to stop illegal mining in the
Philippines.
This is the
first time that Philippine authorities swooped down on an illegal mining
operation following reports of the rampant gold smuggling by Environment
Secretary Ramon JP Paje in the last quarter of 2011.
The joint
MGB-NBI team had raided the processing plant of Bohai Top.
Bohai Top
International Mining Corp. appears to be a subsidiary of Bohai Top General
Trading Llc., a duly registered general trading company in Dubai, United Arab
Emirates, since 2008.
It is primarily
engaged in scrap recycling and iron oxidation for import and export of several
elements. Its trading products include
copper, aluminum, plastic, steel, iron ore, pellet,chrome ore, copper and
nickel ore. A total of six backhoes and 500 tons of copper, gold and
iron concentrate worth at least US$25,000 were seized in the processing plants.
Jasareno said
Bo Hai Top Mining has been operating for at least six months.
The operation,
he said, has no appropriate permit provided under the Philippine Mining Act of
1995 and Executive Order 79.
The company
also failed to show an environmental compliance certificate (ECC).
“A dismantling order shall be issued by the
MGB on Monday (Feb 10) to remove the processing plant,” Jasareno said.
Bohai Top has
listed several projects in CamNorte on its web site, including the Napaod gold,
copper, iron-ore project; Benit gold, copper, iron-ore project; Masalong
large-scale gold, copper, iron-ore project; Guisican large-scale gold,
copper-ore project all in the town of Labo; and Labnig large-scale gold,
copper, iron project in Paracale and Larap waste-material tailings project in
Mambulao town.
Jasareno said
the MGB and the NBI are now looking into all potential illegal mining in
CamNorte as part of the mission of the Fact-Finding Committee on Illegal Mining
of the DENR and the Mining Industry Coordinating Council. – Business Mirror
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ReplyDeleteSomebody must be behind these illegal miners for them to have the guts to do it and is getting rich in return!!
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