As many as 496 employees at the Didipio gold and copper mine have lost their jobs during the first round of permanent layoff conducted by Australian-Canadian miner OceanaGold Corporation (OceanaGold).
Along with the termination of direct employees, approximately 400 people working with contractors were also impacted.
“Today is a sad day for the company and for the many hundreds of workers and their families," OceanaGold President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Holmes said in a press statement.
The first round of permanent layoff came more than a year after the Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) between OceanaGold Philippines Inc. (OGPI) and the Philippine government expired.
To make things worse for the firm, OGPI has also been facing opposition from the local government unit (LGU) of Nueva Vizcaya for its project.
In June last year, Nueva Vizcaya Governor Carlos Padilla released an order to stop the company’s operation as soon as its FTAA expired. At that time, a barricade was established surrounding the Didipio mine site.
This, Holmes said in a recent statement, “constrained our ability to continue operations over the past 15 months”.
Aside from the 496 employees, who are predominantly from local communities in the Provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino, the company may implement a second round of permanent lay-offs in mid-November.
For this, OGPI said it already provided notices to affected employees.
Prior to the layoff, the Didipio mine site employed 1,500 employees, of which 90 percent are Filipinos and 57 percent are from local communities.
“The Company has actively participated in community-led dialogue supported by the majority of village and municipal governments along with the majority of local residents in Didipio. Despite these efforts, a small group of local leaders have refused to consider access arrangements that would have preserved these jobs,” Holmes said.
“We thank local employees and local government leaders for their strong support and efforts to avoid permanent layoffs, especially during this difficult time with COVID-19,” he added.
Right now, the company’s request for FTAA renewal remains pending with the Office of the President.
Holmes said the company continues to “engage with the National Government, who express their support and endorsement of the renewal.”
“The Didipio operation is a world-class mine that has operated to the highest of responsible mining, environmental and social standards. With a world class workforce that is predominantly
Filipino, Didipio has had one of the best safety records globally and represents how mining can contribute to skills development, job creation and livelihood opportunities for local communities,” Holmes said.
“We will work as quickly and safely as we can to rehire hundreds of workers and restart operations should the FTAA be renewed or the blockade lifted,” he added.
Last week, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) rejected the company’s request to transport the remaining ore from its suspended mine site in Didipio.
In his letter to OGPI General Manager David Way, MGB Regional Director Mario Ancheta said the issuance of Ore Transport Permit (OTP) to the mining firm must “be held in abeyance until such time the renewal of the FTAA is granted” to the company.
This, or if there is already an executive agreement between the Local Government Unit (LGU) and the company that the delivery will be allowed to pass in the established checkpoints and “ensure no untoward incident will happen”.
OGPI made the request after the Sangguniang Bayan (SB) of Kasibu municipality issued a resolution of no-objection to the application for the said OTP.
In its resolution, Kasibu SB said it recognized the importance and benefits that the people of Kasibu may receive from the transport of copper from the Didipio mine, particularly on the part of the employees of OGPI who are needing their jobs especially at this time of COVID-19 pandemic.