A massive rehabilitation of a mining rock dump by Masbate Gold Project in Masbate has made substantial progress, which is mostly planted with cacao and coffee seedlings.
Cocomats and cocologs are used to control erosion and topsoil runoff, according to MGP officials.
MGP is made up of two companies that operate in Aroroy in Masbate”•Filminera Resources Corp. and Phil Gold Processing and Refining Corp. Filminera holds the mining tenements, surface rights, and Environmental Compliance Certificate, and PhilGold holds the mineral processing permit and owns and operates the processing plant.
The rehabilitation of the mining rock dump is part of MGP’s much larger project, which led to the planting of 2.2-million trees spread over 1,897 hectares of reforested area in Aroroy. Planting activities began when MGP started operations in 2009.
Due to its consistent responsible mining practices and commitment to preserve the environment, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu cited the MGP twin firms as “one of the best mine sites” he has visited.
Cimatu inspected the mine site earlier this year.
MGP’s rehabilitation program is not limited to the land, but also to coastal areas. The project has a massive mangrove rehabilitation program in which they planted 388,500 mangrove shrubs over 866 hectares of coastal areas.
MGP also started rehabilitating coral reefs in December 2017 to restore the coral reef cover in Port B Arrera that has been severely damaged by dynamite fishing, cyanide fishing and overfishing using unsustainable methods.
There, they installed 125 reefballs and rescued and propagated over 1,200 corals. This program is being greatly expanded through 2018 and it is anticipated that more than 600 additional reefballs and potentially 10,000 corals will be propagated in 2018 alone.
Through MGP’s in-house marine expertise, the project has maintained over 80 percent survival rate of rescued corals planted to date.
MGP is the single largest investment in the municipality of Aroroy. The project has helped catapult the town from a 4th class municipality to 1st class through provision of employment opportunities to the community residents, taxes paid to local and national government, the social development and management program, and environmental conservation efforts.