A pioneer returns home

01/16/2009



TVIRD’s new Mine Dep’t head brings decades of experience to Sulphide Project

He comes from a family of miners. Both his paternal grandfather
and his father raised their respective families by being mining employees. Suji
Salvador Alcausin, the new Mine Department manager of TVI Resource Development
Philippines, Inc. (TVIRD) is a third generation mining professional carrying
on a tradition of raising a family – his own – via the extraction
of minerals from the earth. His extensive experience – gained in a household
supported by a miner parent and during stints as a miner himself in companies
within the industry for three decades now – will undoubtedly be invaluable
to TVIRD as it begins its Copper-Zinc operations.

In his new assignment, Alcausin directs the planning and operational
aspects of his Department. Very quickly, he has already introduced further improvements
to support the cost efficiency measures of TVIRD. This includes the construction
of a new road from the mine pit to the crushing circuit, which will shorten
the route for the hauling of ore.

Suji
Salvador Alcausin built the road that now connects Canatuan to Siocon
town proper, where Sta. Maria Port is located. TVIRD will ship copper
concentrates from this port.

Alcausin’s current post with TVIRD is actually a coming
home of sorts for him. He previously worked as a Senior Mining Engineer of the
company when it was still in the exploration stage of its Gold-Silver Project
in Canatuan, the ancestral domain of the Subanon indigenous people (IP).

From 1996 to 1997, Alcausin led the construction of 22 kilometers
of the 27-kilometer road that now links Canatuan to the town proper of Siocon,
the Project’s host municipality in Zamboanga del Norte. He also built
the road from the Mill Plant to Malusok, where the company’s staff houses
are now located, as well as the road behind the Plant. These thoroughfares are
still being maintained by TVIRD and have proven to be useful both for the company
and the IP community over the years.

“We built these roads amidst the currency crisis that
hit Asia, including the Philippines, in the late ‘90s,” Alcausin
says. “I’m glad to know that people have been benefiting from what
we did. And I’m happy to see that some of the people I worked with back
then are still here with the company.”

Alcausin
(left) with old buddy Fidel Bontao, TVIRD Canatuan Environment Department
Manager. To underscore his commitment to sustainable mining, he says he
will look for ways to support the Environment Department in its efforts
to rehabilitate mined out areas in Canatuan.

He is referring to TVIRD pioneers who remain deeply involved
in the next stage of its operations in this mountain village: Fidel Bontao,
Environment Manager; Cirilo Agot of the Finance Department; driver Eduardo Abiera;
and former mechanic-driver and now Mobile Section consultant Mamerto Piquet.
After being reunited with Alcausin again after a dozen years, the company trailblazers
had a grand time reminiscing the many challenges they overcame during TVIRD’s
infant years. Among those challenges was mine site mapping, which included determining
where to construct the roads and bridges.

Bontao, one of Alcausin’s closest colleagues, says that
he likes Alcausin’s work habits and his way of handling people, whether
they are his peers, from the rank and file, or from the community.

Alcausin says that after his stint with TVIRD in 1997, he worked
with different mining companies including SR Metals Inc., which operates a nickel
project in Tubay, Agusan del Norte, and Tradecor, a Korean firm conducting exploration
activities for gold and manganese.

Working with different mining companies made Alcausin realize
the industry’s importance in the economic growth of the country and impact
communities, as well as in the social development of indigenous peoples.

Alcausin
conducts a tool box meeting with his Mine Department crew before they
begin the day’s work. Working with different mining companies made
Alcausin realize the industry’s importance in the economic growth
of the country and impact communities, as well as in the social development
of indigenous peoples.

“The Philippine Mining Act of 1995 places so much importance
to the environment and the community, and I like that,” Alcausin stresses.
“I also like the fact that while we are mining, we are also rehabilitating
the mined-out areas.”

To underscore his commitment to sustainable mining, he says
he will look for ways to support the Environment Department in its rehabilitation
efforts. Part of the plan is the construction of additional benches where needed
at the pit, and subsequently, the planting of suitable trees to stabilize the
benches.

“Suji” to his friends and relatives, Alacausin
is a Mining Engineer who earned his bachelor’s degree at St Louis University
in Baguio City in Northern Philippines. A full-blooded Ilocano (from the country’s
Ilocos Region) who grew up in the City of Pines, he has been in the mining industry
since 1979 when he started to work for Benguet Corporation, the company that
also employed his grandfather and father. He left Benguet after 12 years.

Despite the unstable price of metal in the world market, Alcausin
believes the Sulphide Project will succeed because of TVIRD’s dedicated
management team in Canatuan. For his part, he says he is committed to support
the team by adhering to the principles of responsible mining.

“This is mining that strives hard to be environment friendly
and socially responsible one hand, and profitable for investors and employees
on the other,” he stresses. “Costs, environment and safety will
always be considered in every decision we will make in our department.”

Alcausin is married to Lody, a homemaker whom he fondly refers
to as his “only one”. The couple has four children: John Michael,
26; Jona Mikaela, 25; Joana Myka, 23; and Jan Maela, 20. The second and third
are registered nurses, while the eldest and youngest are also taking up nursing
courses.

Asked why the mining tradition in his family stopped with him,
Alcausin, with a smile, says: “My wife was a nurse who quit her job to
be able to take care of our children full time while I was away from home most
of the time because of the nature of my work. Some of my wife’s siblings
– my kids’ uncles and aunts – are nurses and doctors. It is
highly likely that my children’s decision to take up nursing was greatly
influenced by their relatives on their mother’s side, apart from the fact
the Filipino nurses are highly in demand abroad. Besides, being a miner is difficult.
Perhaps my children saw that.” (Lullie Micabalo)

Alcausin,
middle, with Bontao (left) and TVIRD Forester Gemma Dandana, a Subanon,
inspecting the mined out areas at the mine pit where rehabilitation activities
are being done. “The Philippine Mining Act of 1995 gives so much
importance to the environment and the community, and I like that,”
says Alcausin.