Nearly 60 participants from the academe, national government agencies, non-government organizations, local government units, religious groups, and other stakeholders participated the facilitated mine and plant tour at Carmen Copper Corporation (CCC), formerly Atlas Mining, inToledoCity.

“This activity is pursued so that we would be able to define and make clear the principles of responsible mining for well-informed decisions by stakeholders to avoid speculations on mining,” said Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) 7 Regional Director Loreto B. Alburo.

Alburo added the MGB recognizes the critical role of stakeholders as partners and collaborators and with their vigilance against destroying the country’s environment and natural resources.

“It is our belief that there is a need to clearly state and clarify what responsible mining is all about as we feel the need to communicate particularly the corporate social responsibility (CSR) component through the social development and management program (SDMP) and other environmental protection initiatives of the company.” he said.

Straddling seven barangays in the cities ofToledoand Naga, CCC which is a 100 percent subsidiary of Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation (ACMDC), has a mineral property that spans a total area of 5,218.116 hectares.

The said company started copper mining operations in 1955 that utilized both surface and underground mining methods to extract copper ore from four open pits and two underground mines.

“We have been regularly conducting a mine and plant tour in all our operating mines and quarries inCentral Visayasto show to the general public that we have been transparent in our monitoring and evaluation of these firms,” he explained.

Likewise, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)7 Regional Executive Director Dr.Isabelo R. Montejo said the company has contributed the implementation of the national greening program (NGP) by planting the most number of seedlings totaling 207,374 or 66.5 percent covering 132.39 hectares or 45.94 percent out of 288.16-hectare target for 2011 for mining firms.

The Atlas property inToledoCitystill has considerable ore reserve estimated at 873.815 million metric tons at 0.41 percent copper of which 276.043 million tons are contained in the Carmen orebody.

The mine and plant tour is one of the features of the environment month celebration 2012 with theme: “Green Economy: Does it include you?