Manila, 15 September 2011
Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) has significantly progressed the disclosure of its Mine Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project, with public consultation meetings well underway.
Speaking at the Mining Philippines 2011 Conference in Manila today, SMI General Manager for Operations and External Affairs, Mark Williams, detailed the engagement activities being undertaken with stakeholder groups to identify their specific issues and concerns in relation to the Mine EIS.
“SMI commenced our public consultation meetings in the towns of Tampakan in South Cotabato, Kiblawan in Davao del Sur and Malungon in Sarangani earlier this month with similar meeting being held in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat today,” Mr Williams said.
“These consultation meetings provide our stakeholders with an opportunity to hear a balanced report of our draft Mine EIS and allow them to provide feedback to SMI staff and ask questions to our technical specialists.
“This public consultation phase follows an intensive period of private stakeholder briefings during which we met with more than 2,000 individuals from 118 stakeholder groups ranging from local government units to non-government organizations, indigenous peoples’ (IP) groups and civil society groups.
“Feedback from our stakeholders, gathered through both the public and private consultation meetings, will be taken into consideration as we finalize the EIS for submission to the National Government in support of our Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) application,” he said.
(ends)
Contact Person:
John B. Arnaldo
Corporate Communications Manager
Sagittarius Mines, Inc.
Mobile: (+63 928) 550-3847
SMI Media Care Hotline
Mobile: (+63 918) 864-4685
Notes to editors:
ABOUT THE TAMPAKAN PROJECT
The Tampakan Copper-Gold Project is located on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, approximately 40 kilometres north of General Santos City. The Project is situated on the boundaries of four provinces: South Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat and Davao del Sur, and represents one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits.
The Tampakan Project is a 2.4 billion metric ton deposit, containing 13.5 million metric tons of copper and 15.8 million ounces of gold at a 0.3% cut-off grade. In 2010, the Project employed approximately 372 employees and rotational shift work for a further 1,185 contractors.
The Project is operated by Philippine-based affiliate Sagittarius Mines, Incorporated (SMI), whose 40% controlling equity is a joint venture among Xstrata Copper (62.5%) and Indophil Resources NL (37.5%). The 60% non-controlling equity shareholders of SMI are the Tampakan Mining Corporation and Southcot Mining Corporation (known as the Tampakan Group of Companies).
SMI submitted the Mining Project Feasibility Study for the Tampakan Project to the Philippine government in April 2010 and is progressing with the Mine and Off-site Infrastructure Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs). SMI expects to submit the Mine Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS) to the government by the second half of 2011.
Subject to all necessary community, government and shareholder approvals, SMI estimates that production from the $5.9 billion Tampakan Project could commence by 2016. If developed, it is estimated that the Project would contribute an average of PhP134 billion (USD2.8 billion) to Philippine GDP; an equivalent of 1% annual increase to the Philippine GDP over the life of the Project.
ABOUT XSTRATA COPPER
Xstrata Copper is the fourth largest global copper producer with attributable mined production in 2010 of 913,500 tonnes of copper in cathodes and concentrates. The company is also one of the world’s largest producers of smelter and refined copper, including from third party materials.
Headquartered in Brisbane, Xstrata Copper is one of the commodity business units within the major global diversified mining group Xstrata plc. Its mining and metallurgical operations and development projects span eight countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Peru, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and the USA. Its operations and projects are administered through a regional divisional management structure, which ensures that critical decisions are taken close to the related businesses. It also has a recycling business (Xstrata Recycling) with plants in the United States and offices in Canada and Asia.