The municipal council of Tampakan in the province of South Cotabato has called for the lifting of an open-pit mining ban that has stymied the development of Southeast Asia's largest copper and gold mine for the past decade.
The town council's presiding officer, Vice Mayor John Mark Baldon, said the body passed Resolution No. 589 on March 15 recommending the provincial government to review its 2010 Environment Code, specifically Section 22 which forbids open-pit mining in the province.
Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) has been exploring the Tampakan project for years, planning to open-pit mine the area's massive deposits, but has been thwarted by the province's open-pit mining ban.
The municipal council insisted that the mining company had met all of the necessary conditions to begin operations, including obtaining permission from aboriginal landowners to open their lands to the mine. Only the mining ban stands in the way of the Tampakan initiative, according to the council's resolution.