TOLEDO CITY, Cebu — In its effort to promote environmental protection, the Carmen Copper Corporation (CCC), formerly Atlas Consolidated Mining Development Corp., located in this city has led in the reforestation of around 851.1014 hectares or 101.33 percent of total disturbed land area here.

Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) 7 Regional Director Loreto B. Alburo lauded the efforts of the CCC as, according to him, the mining firm has been actively involved in reforestation activities, long before Government required such an initiative.

“Its early reforestation efforts were principally directed toward restoring environmental imbalances particularly to stabilize weak and barren slopes, dumps and acid mine drainage (AMD) aside from assuring its future underground mine with a steady supply of timber,” Alburo explained.

CCC, the biggest mining firm in Central Visayas, has a total operations area of 1,675 hectares. Half of these, or 50.14 percent, is undisturbed area comprised of 835.1014 hectares.

He added that CCC has produced 29,233 tree species as of last year. These have been distributed or provided to different schools and organizations for their tree planting activities,” said Alburo.

The MGB7 Director disclosed that the continuous rehabilitation of mined-out areas and waste dumps through reforestation and vegetative slope stabilization interventions should be undertaken by mining companies, as these activities will help mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Alburo also said that it has been Government’s policy that mining operations shall be pro-environment and pro-people in sustaining wealth creation and improving quality of life”. He also added “mining operations shall be managed in an environmentally responsible manner to achieve and maintain sustainable conditions at every stage of its operations.”

The mining official also said that the CCC has been embarking on a five-year Mine Rehabilitation and Enhanced Watershed Research and Development (Mine REWARD) of its impact areas with a budget of P3.613 million.

Mine REWARD’s objectives include the production of an updated vegetation map; the retrieval, assessment, organization and consolidation of available baseline information; establishment of benchmark information about past rehabilitation/revegetation efforts; and recommending effective and cost-efficient strategies on accelerated reforestation/mine revegetation to minimize the impact of pollution and other contaminants.