Its exploration employees and contractors safe, TVIRD assists victims and their families
Rescuers sift through debris in search of casualties. Note SCAA personnel in fatigue uniform (center of photo) whose unit has been at the forefront of search and retrieval efforts since the night of February 18, when mudslides buried houses and facilities of small-scale miners in Balabag.
Security personnel of TVI Resource Development Phils., Inc. (TVIRD) have been leading search and rescue efforts for victims of a landslide at a small-scale mining community in Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur since Saturday night (February 18, 2006), when heavy rains triggered a mud slide that buried two houses, washed out three others, and destroyed five rod mills used by the small-scale miners.
Some 20 Special CAFGU Active Auxiliary (SCAA) elements assigned to secure TVIRD’s exploration activities at Sitio Balabag, backed by Army personnel, dug up the bodies of Marilyn Jimenez, 32; Julaima Carillo, 4; Richard Somondong, 30; and Dodong Ramones, 32 from underneath the pile of earth. They are all part of the approximately 3,000-strong illegal small-scale miners and their families in the area.
The SCAA unit continues to spearhead the search for one missing small-scale miner. There were no casualties among the 60 TVIRD employees and contractors in the company’s exploration site, some 500 meters away from the landslide.
TVIRD has extended financial aid for the medical treatment of Merlyn Intag, who sustained minor injuries. The company has likewise coordinated with the Philippine National Disaster Coordinating Council to seek further assistance for the victims’ relatives.
According to TVIRD staff members on site, the landslide area used to be a natural canal on the northeast portion of the Balabag mountain ridge that small-scale miners filled and leveled with soil and rocks. It was here where the miners built their houses and milling facilities, including those that were either buried or destroyed by the landslide.
Prior to the landslide, the illegal small-scale miners – operating without government permits – had put up 16 carbon-in-pulp plants, 25 leach tanks, and 28 rod mills with about 180 drums in Balabag.
TVIRD, an affiliate of Calgary-based TVI Pacific, Inc, commenced its exploration activities within the Balabag ridge area in July 2005. These non-invasive activities include sampling, geological mapping and trenching conducted some 500 meters away and from the other side of the ridge where the landslide happened. Another non-invasive activity, drilling, commenced on November 18, 2005 and is ongoing at about 250 meters west of the landslide area. Trenching work, meanwhile, is being conducted 500 meters south.
The Balabag property is held under an agreement between TVIRD and Zamboanga Minerals Corporation (ZMC) and grants TVIRD an exclusive period of two years and nine months to assess ZMC’s Mineral Production Sharing Agreement with the Philippine government.