A group of environment advocates from the Philippines recently slammed an Australian mining company.

Sibuyan Island Sentinels coordinator Rodne Galicha vented the group’s sentiments against the nickel supply agreement between BHP Billiton, the mining company, and the Sibuyan Nickle Properties Development Corporation (SNPDC).

Chief among these concerns are their group’s concern for what the mining project would do to the environment of Sibuyan.

Galicha said that they are worried over the activities of Queensland Nickel, a BHP Billiton subsidiary, which wants to establish a nickel mine on the island of Sibuyan.

“We are concerned about biodiversity loss from BHP Billiton’s proposed mining activities,” he said.

The island, usually called the ‘Galapagos of Asia,’ is known for its dense forests, the Philippines’ cleanest inland body of water, and the majestic Mt. Guiting-guiting.

Galicha added that “BHP Billiton’s proposal represents a serious and unacceptable risk to biodiversity and to threatened species [in the area]. BHP Billiton is contradicting its own policy that it will not proceed with any development which would likely result in extinction of threatened species.”

Apart from the concern over the environment, the group also voiced out their fears over the tendency of BHP Billiton’s partner, SNDPC, for stepping over the boundaries of lawful activities.

“A security guard working for SNPDC killed Councilor Armin Rios-Marin at a peaceful anti-mining protest in October 2007. SNDPC has tried to bribe the family of the murdered councilor in a failed attempt to get the family to drop the murder charge,” Galicha told the BHP Billiton directors and stockholders during their AGM in Melbourne.

“Will BHP Billiton be an accomplice to the activities of SNDPC or will you take the responsible course of action and pull out of the supply agreement?” asked Galicha of the BHP Billiton officers.

Meanwhile, BHP Billiton chief executive officer Marius Kloppers acknowledged their company’s supply agreement with NSDPC bust said that they have suspended the said agreement due to court proceeding over the alleged murder.

He also acknowledged that BHP Billiton “does have a responsibility to select responsible suppliers”.

Australia’s OceanaGold shelves Philippine project

OceanaGold, an Australian mining company, temporarily shelved its gold and copper project in the Philippines as funding becomes harder to come by due to the current global economic crisis.

The group said that the financial meltdown has forced their company to turn closer to home and to put on hold the US$320-million Dipidio mining project.

“The uncertainty around current financial markets dictates that we effect this strategy,” chief executive Stephen Orr said in a statement.

The project is only the second foreign venture in the Philippines, but higher prices of raw materials has pushed its cost to US$320 million last May, from the US$155 million it cost in 2006.

The higher costs have prompted the company to find a partner who can shoulder the US$185 million excess of their original budget, but to no avail.

“Prospective partners were taking a very conservative approach because of the global credit crunch, and ‘waiting for the storm to pass’,” OceanaGold spokesman Darren Klinck said.

Since no partner was found to spend for the additional costs, the mining project in the northern Nueva Vizcaya failed to take off.

The company’s representatives said that OceanaGold will wait until financial markets improved sufficiently for it to secure the funds needed to finish project construction, he added.

In October, the company said it expected to start commercial production in January 2010, nearly a year behind its initial plan, while it searches for a partner.

Mr Klinck said OceanaGold had no plans at the moment to divest its 92 percent interest in Didipio, which is expected to produce around 120,000 ounces of gold annually in its first 10 years of production.