Marinduque folk rally against mine waste deal

More than a thousand people held a rally on Monday in Boac, Marinduque province, to protest a $20-million deal being offered to the province  as compensation for the 1996 mine waste spill that killed the Boac River and its tributaries and is considered the country’s worst mining disaster.
Boac Councilor Rolando Larracas, in a phone interview, said the offer was “gravely disadvantageous to the people who have long been suffering from the environment destruction left by their past mining operation.”
The $20 million take-it-or-leave-it package was offered in September 2013 and is way lower than the $100 million claim for damage that Marinduque is demanding from Barrick in a 2006 lawsuit.
Barrick is the global gold-mining firm that purchased Placer Dome Inc., the former parent company of Marcopper Mining Corp. that shut down operations following the mine tailing spill.

In 1996, the plug of the Tapian pit of the Marcopper mine gave way and unleashed approximately 200 million tons of toxic mine tailings into the Boac River.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/588954/marinduque-folk-rally-against-mine-waste-deal