The embattled firm Sagittarius Mining Inc. (SMI) has launched a campaign in schools here in an apparent bid to court community support for its open pit mining project.
SMI's mining project, called the Tampakan Project, is situated at the boundaries of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Davao del Sur, and Sarangani.
Some local officials including Davao del Sur Governor Douglas Cagas - have rejected SMI's project, saying it will destroy the environment.
The provincial government of South Cotabato even banned open pit mining in the province.
SMI, owned by global mining giant Xstrata, said it has been preparing to contest the ban.
In the meantime, the company has been soliciting the support of communities in the provinces affected by the project under its Mobile Community Information and Resource centre (MCIRC).
Janice Sadiangabay, MCIRC officer, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Tuesday that aside from targeting students during their campus tour, they also campaigned among local government units and other peoples' organisation.
She said SMI aimed to clarify the issues surrounding its plans and proposals to extract gold in what has been touted to be among the world's largest copper and gold finds.
Sadiangabay said they have been using virtual information technology through the help of spectra-vision or hologram machine so that people could better understand how the company would extract gold and copper.
She said through the campaign, SMI would like to show the measures it has been taking to protect forests and water sources.
Aside from presenting documents about the safety measures of the SMI, the mining firm has been telling students that since 2009, a total of 14,000 students benefited from its scholarship programme.
SMI has also been emphasising the economic opportunities opened up by the project, including 2,000 jobs to local people.
Thirty-six percent of the employees are from the host towns of Tampakan in South Cotabato, Kiblawan in Davao del Sur, Columbio, Sultan Kudarat and Malungon in Sarangani province, according to Sadiangabay.
The company considers the Tampakan Project as one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits in the South East Asia-Western Pacific region.
Using the Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource estimate system, SMI said the Tampakan Project could yield up to 13.5 million metric tonnes of copper and 15.8 million ounces of gold, using a 0.3 percent copper cut-off grade. The area also contains molybdenum a mineral used in the manufacture of steel and alloys, according to the SMI.
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