-
Bird’s eye view. TVIRD’s field office and processing plant sit at the crest of Balabag Hill – which provides a good vantage point for monitoring its mining operations and progressive rehabilitation as well as a proper slope for directing effluents to its tailings storage and impoundment facility down below.
-
All systems go. TVIRD’s Operations Group is in high spirits, having met the company's plant commissioning target and bringing it online. The company’s Balabag Mine site has also reached herd immunity, having 98% of its employees fully vaccinated.
-
The plant’s feed conveyor runs continuously, manned by the experienced in-house crew of TVIRD, and who are mostly local residents of Zamboanga Peninsula. The Mill Plant is built completely in-house.
-
Workers at the Mill Plant’s gold room are on 24 hours rotation to be able to hit production targets. They are part of TVIRD’s workforce – many of whom are from the company’s host town of Bayog.
-
Balabag General Manager Engr. Jun Gingo holds the first gold dore produced by the TVIRD Operations team. With him are Chief Metallurgist Jurby Jumawan (left) and Materials Management Manager Joel Manalansan.
-
Mill Plant welder Ariel Arado is a native of Bayog. Like other TVIRD workers, Arado is happy and content with his job and the benefits provided by the company to over 750 personnel working on site.
-
Timuay Casiano Edal of the Subanon tribe welcomes the company’s long-awaited operations in their area. The 78-year old tribal leader likewise anticipates the implementation of projects under their Community Royalty Development Plan.
Company commences its Balabag gold-silver operations
Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur / September 2021 – Mining stakeholders of this town are jubilant that TVI Resource Development Philippines Inc. (TVIRD) finally commenced its commercial mining operations in Sitio Balabag. Subanen tribal leaders as well as local government officials are likewise optimistic that with this development, people in the region will surely benefit from the increased economic activity in downstream industries.
The news also brought a smile to the 78-year old tribal leader, Timuay Casiano Edal – a member of the Subanen tribal council called Pigsalabukan Gokum de Bayog (PGB) and one of the signatories of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed by the tribe and TVIRD. The MOA enumerates the duties and responsibilities of the two parties as the company utilizes the Subanen ancestral lands and harnesses its resources.
“After many years of waiting, finally TVIRD is operational. I never thought I would still witness its mining operations,” the chieftain told TVIRD Community Relations Officer Lope Dizon. Edal was among the many Subanens who warmly welcomed the company’s geologists assigned to explore Balabag some 20 years ago.
“He has a heart for his tribesmen. Because of this, Edal believes that tribal leaders can now implement the development plans embodied in their Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan (ADSDPP), which was approved by the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP),” added Dizon.
The government’s partner
Bayog Mayor Celso A. Matias is also confident that his constituents will enjoy more benefits now that the company is operational. In a recent TV interview, the mayor discussed the economic impact of mining on his town and commended the company for providing employment to his constituents.
In that interview, the mayor also applauded TVIRD for supporting local businesses and its implementation of development projects through its Social Development Management Plan or SDMP.
“Namalit sila sa mga lokal nga produkto dinhi sa Bayog. Sa karne lang, daku nga volume ang ilang ginapalit nga usahay ma-‘short’ na gani ang mga supplier (They are buying their essentials here. They are ordering a large volume of local meat that may sometimes result to shortage of the product from its supplier),” he said.
The mayor who once visited TVIRD’s first project in Sitio Canatuan, Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte is hopeful that Bayog can also be elevated from being a third-class municipality to first-class status due to the company’s local taxes remittances – this, in addition to its tax contribution into the national government.
Mayor Matias is referring to the excise taxes paid by mining companies to the national government in which the host province, municipality and barangay will have a predetermined share of the tax as mandated by the Mining Act of 1995.
During its gold-silver and copper-zinc projects in Canatuan, TVIRD paid a total of Php395.2 million in excise tax to the national government. Records from TVIRD’s Finance Department also show that the company paid a total of Php38.9 million to Siocon town for its business permit from 2004 to 2018 while another Php18.7 million was paid for its real property tax.
Meantime, TVIRD invested some Php173.4 million in its SDMP and Php264-million in royalties to the Subanen tribe during its 10-year run in Canatuan.
To spark hope
Seeing him at work, one can say that Antonio Malco, Jr. is happy and content in working for TVIRD. Malco, Jr. 38, is a resident of Bayog and father of a teenage son who is already in high school. He is a crane operator and has been with the company for two years now.
“During this pandemic, when many are hungry and hopeless because of joblessness, I can say that I am blessed to have this job. My family is assured of food on our table and other basic needs,” he said.
Welder Ariel Arado, 36, likewise shared that he is happy to be back in TVIRD. He said he likes working for the company since it looks after the welfare of its employees. “Happy ako sa trabaho ko (I am happy with my job).”
Arado was a member of the Special Civilian Active Auxiliary (SCAA) that helped secure the company’s assets in 2005 and was also part of the exploration team in 2007 until 2008. Malco and Arado are two of over 750 people working in TVIRD Balabag.
Hiring locals
TVIRD’s 4,779-hectare Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) area spans the three provinces of the Zamboanga Peninsula. Nearly half of its workers are residents of Bayog, an agricultural town. Meantime, eligible candidates from neighboring Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte and other provinces are appointed to technical positions.
The company likewise honors its agreement to provide employment for eligible Subanens. Some 13% of its workforce are Subanens – a development lauded by Timuay Lucenio Manda of the PGB and who leads the collective Subanen tribe along with Edal.
TVIRD Balabag Project Manager Jun Gingo said that the company is currently operating at a capacity of 1,000 tons per day and has completed its first shipment of gold doré in the amount of 855 kg containing 932 ounces of gold and 25,959 ounces of silver.
With the Balabag plant and mining activities operating twenty-four hours per day, Gingo draws confidence from the collective experience of its workers and the capability of the newly-installed mill plant – which will enable TVIRD to ramp-up operations to double the current capacity.
*******
