http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=business01_july11_2006

SYDNEY—Lafayette Mining Ltd. said yesterday it had restarted operations at its copper and gold mine on Rapu-Rapu island in the Philippines after it was shut for pollution violations last year.

But environmental groups vowed to press the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to reorder the mine closed.

“The reopening of Lafayette demonstrates how indifferent the Arroyo administration and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources are to the demands of the people and protection of the environment,” Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of environmental activist group Kalikasan-PNE, said in a statement.

Lafayette shares closed 19 percent up at 10.5 cents, valuing the company at A$93.8 million ($70.4 million). The stock had sunk to a three-year low of A$0.081 in early June on concern the Rapu-Rapu mine would remain idle indefinitely.

“If they can keep their act together, with the metals prices going in the right direction, Lafayette will start to look interesting,” Shaw Stockbroking analyst Ted Leschke said.

Lafayette, the first foreign firm to develop and run a mine in the Philippines in almost 40 years, estimates the lode will generate revenues of $350 million a year from annual production of 10,000 tons of copper in concentrates, 14,000 tons of zinc, 50,000 ounces of gold and 600,000 ounces of silver.

Measured on the London Metal Exchange, copper prices are up 76 percent this year and zinc has risen 76 percent. Gold in the spot market is up 22 percent this year and silver is 28 percent higher.

Lafayette in June paid a P10.4 million fine imposed by the Philippine government after two cyanide spills in 2005 at the Rapu-rapu mine in Bicol region
Lafayette said the Philippines’ environmental department had verified the company’s remedial environmental measures and a temporary lifting order, allowing operations to restart on a 30-day trial, had been verified.

A fact-finding committee investigating the spills in October, chaired by a bishop, called for the permanent closure of Lafayette’s operations, a moratorium on mining on the island and a review of the law allowing 100 percent foreign ownership of local mines.

“It’s reassuring, there is no question about this. Had the mine not been able to operate, it would have been a major setback to the country,” Peter Wallace, president of Manila research group Wallace Business Forum, said. Reuters