Barangay Bulalacao in the municipality of Mankayan, Benguet, issued a resolution on March 20 opposing the renewal of Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company’s mining permit.

In the document signed by 15 community elders, the barangay asserted that their area must be excluded from the company’s mining plan.

They are opposing on the basis of environmental destruction, threats to public safety, and the reduction, depletion, and poisoning of water sources used daily by residents, agriculture, and livelihoods—harms residents already suffered. They added the frequent landslides, road cracks, land subsidence, and sinkholes caused by the mine.

The document will be part of the process for securing their Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).

Lepanto announced in February that the majority of barangays support its contract renewal under the FPIC process. Lepanto’s partner in the project is its subsidiary, Far Southeast Gold Resources Inc.

Lepanto began mining in Benguet in 1990 when the government approved its 25-year permit, open to renewal at its end. The operation covers 949 hectares of ancestral land.

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