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INSIDE
TVI
(this author and publisher Rev. Mel Magdayao) were
welcomed within the restricted area of TVI with the help of
DENR personnel who to brought us to the site and through the
introduction of TVI’s liason officer Mrs. Guada Lim Miranda.
 From
Poblacion to the mine area, it took us more than an hour’s
ride through rough roads, bordered by tall mountains on one
side and frightfully sheer cliffs on the other.
It
was still Christmas holidays and all the staff were on
vacation, except the security personnel. The processing of
gold and silver continued, however.
Col.
Ruben Ilaban, retired from the Philippine Army, and now deputy
chief for TVI’s security, welcomed us. He was
officer-in-charge of the mine operations during the Christmas
break.
Ilaban is commander of Special Civilian Armed Auxiliary (SCAA)
assigned to TVI. This is a para-military group trained by
government military and detailed to help LGUs secure areas
where companies like TVI operate, says Col. Ilbanan.
While he asked us not to be specific about their strength for
security reasons, Ilbanan’s men are plentiful enough to secure
TVI’s mining area. Another retired officer, Col. Valentino
Idang, serves as TVI’s consultant on security. Col. Idang was
commander of Basilan during the Abu Sayyaf heydays.
Eduardo Cabrigas is TVI’s safety coordinator. He was formerly
connected with Atlas Mining in Cebu. All three gentlemen take
us on a site tour, starting with the highly controversial
tailings pond/dam, then up the three hectares of a mountain
being leveled, its surface occasionally glittering with specks
of gold and silver.
Big
chunks of rocks and loads of soil, called gossan ore, were
being forked onto dump trucks, and brought down to the mill,
where they are crushed, and the precious metals extracted
using chemicals, including the highly poisonous cyanide.
While on tour Cabrigas points out that TVI has installed
safety measures to prevent erosion, showing us three siltation
dams made up of sandbags stacked on the slope of the mountain
being mined. He says it is sufficient to control silt from
flowing onto the creeks which were tributaries to both Siocon
River and Litoban River.
He also confirms what the two retired officers say about the
cyanide being poured onto a pond artificially dammed by
compacted rocks – cyanide loses its dangerous qualities when
exposed to sunlight.
 TVI
has installed a submersible pump in its tailings pond,
recycling the water for use in the processing plant, and
periodically reducing the pond’s water level. This rebuts,
they say, locals’ accusations that when the tailings pond is
full, TVI opens some secret chamber to let the poisonous
materials escape onto the streams.
Our
tour is capped with a visit to their laboratory where a big
bar of gold-silver mixture was being drilled for analysis.
TVI’s engineer said that this particular bar, made of 95%
silver and 5% gold, was worth more than six hundred thousand
pesos. This bar, and all others produced daily in Canatuan,
is then sent to Hong Kong for further processing.
 TVI
insists that they are responsible miners, and are taking
necessary precautions to reduce damage to Siocon. They have
also introduced health care and women’s education in Canatuan.
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