TVI

Stained glass

tviblog — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:47:52 +0400

by Cynthia Comisas-Lacpao

It was already past midnight last Friday, but I was still wide-awake. I simply could not sleep, even if I was dead tired from my duty at the TVIRD Clinic in Canatuan. Four hours earlier, my husband called to inform me that I passed the board licensure examinations for nurses. His call was followed by many text messages on my mobile phone congratulating me on the news. Still in disbelief, I checked the website of the government Professional Regulation Commission. There I saw for myself my name in the list of nursing board passers. Indeed, I am now a registered nurse!

Two years ago, I went back to school hoping that I will be able to achieve my dream of becoming a nurse – a dream that began when I was still in grade school…even though we were poor. That dream became more intense in my early days with TVIRD, when I felt out of place every time I was around colleagues who were professionals. I felt my finishing a midwifery course wasn’t enough to get me to their level. (I guess many indigenous peoples like me all over the country share this feeling of inferiority)

Some of my closest relatives were pessimistic about my dream. They told me to forget about. “It’s next to impossible,” they said. “You have children to take care of and tuition fees for nursing school are high. Better forget it.” Those words still echo in my mind.

But instead of being discouraged, I never stopped dreaming. The rebel in me always egged me on to keep dreaming; to “reach for the stars”.

In 2007, I saw an opportunity. In a meeting, I mustered enough courage to tell Mr. Cliff James, the Chairman of TVIRD, about my dream and my fervent wish to be part of the roster of scholars of the company, then in the last stages of the gold-silver phase of its mining operations in Canatuan, the land of my forefathers.

Mr. James, always warm and approachable especially to Subanons like me, listened intently. I still remember the smile on his face when he told me that if I qualify in the company’s stringent selection criteria for poor but deserving scholars, he will see to it that my name is included in the scholars’ list. I was in cloud 9 after that meeting! Silently I committed to him and to the spirits of my forefathers that as a TVIRD scholar, I will work hard to be able to finish my course and to come back and serve my tribe. My problem on how to financially support my ambition was solved! I’ve just hurdled the first obstacle!

Time flies fast. Last March, I completed my nursing degree at the Western Mindanao State University. I many not have been a part of the dean’s list, but I passed all my subjects with flying colors!

After graduation, I immediately enrolled at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University Review Center to prepare myself for the licensure examinations in July. While I was taking the exams, I thought it was easy. Many of the questions were related to management and leadership, the very experience I had while I was working with the TVIRD Canatuan’s Community Development Office, (now known as Community Relations and Development Office or CReDO) and the Administration Department. I was really confident that I would pass the exams.

That’s why when I saw my name in the list of board passers I was really elated. Out of the more than 91,000 nursing graduates of took the exams, only about 37,000 passed! That was the reason I couldn’t sleep that Friday night. I have become the first Subanon nurse in Canatuan. It was a dream come true!

I know that after all my triumphs there will be challenges, even failures and disappointments. But why should I be afraid when I am so used to them? Now that I am a full-fledged nurse, the challenges will be tougher and the stakes higher. I have nonetheless come to realize there is more to life than just merely working for working’s sake. Life is worth living when you have your family and the people who matter to you to share your dreams and aspirations with.

The author Ellen G. White wrote: “In our young age, we look up to people who are braver, stronger, better. Like stained glass, they reflect the light and we who behold them, see the beauty, in which in a way we pattern our lives.”

I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to Mr. James for believing in me and giving me the chance to achieve my dream. He and the many members of the TVIRD family are my stained glass. I also thank my parents, Ely and Reming Comisas, all the personnel of CReDO, Human Resources and Administration, Finance, and Public Affairs who have helped me in countless ways. I thank my husband for sharing my dream. I thank God for giving me all these people.

Transparency, voluntarily: TVIRD sustainability report soon to be completed

tviblog — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:35:09 +0400

by Jay Nelson, TVIRD Vice President for Environment and Civil Works and Head, GRI Technical Working Group

Sustainability reporting has fast become an essential management activity for organizations around the world. Recognizing the value in this type of reporting, TVIRD will soon release its first sustainability report for the Year 2009 operations. Although TVIRD had previously produced regulatory based sustainability reports in the form of annual environmental protection plans and social development programs, this report will be different in that it follows the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. This particular reporting medium has become the most widely used sustainability reporting method in the world and is used by thousands of companies and organizations around the world. The mining sector is well represented within this group with the majority of major mining companies now producing sustainability reports using the GRI guidelines. The vision of the GRI is that disclosure of economic, environmental and social performance should be as commonplace and comparable as financial reporting and just as important to organizational success.

Specific protocols and reporting guidelines are used and all reports are registered with the GRI in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The reports are public and allow for increased transparency, the opportunity to compare sustainability programs with other companies and to identify areas of improvement for sustainability activities and reporting.

Preparation of the TVIRD sustainability report is under the direction of our TVIRD president, Atty. Eugene Mateo. As he has stated to our employees, “Reporting on sustainability performance is an important way for us to manage our impact on sustainable development, whose challenges are many. As a growing company we have not only the responsibility but also the ability to exert positive changes on the economy, environment and social conditions of our host communities and stakeholders.”

Unique to this style of reporting is that it is entirely voluntary and includes discussions of the management approach to sustainable actions and performance indicators to measure how well the goals and objectives have been met. The GRI framework has been developed through a systematic process and consensus-seeking dialogue with a large group of organizations and individuals from over 60 countries. These groups represent a wide cross section of society and truly provide a global perspective on key sustainability issues.

When complete, this report will be the first GRI registered sustainability report produced by a Philippine operating mining company. It will give us a benchmark of what we have accomplished, guide us in further developing our sustainability programs and allow us to compare our performance within the company and with other organizations. As further stated by Atty Mateo, “We subscribe to the principle that sustainability is about operating in ways that meet and integrate existing environmental, economic and social needs without compromising the well being of future generations.”

Employees on TVIRD film: �So many things have changed for the better�

tviblog — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:21:02 +0400

By Lullie Micabalo, TVIRD Canatuan Public Affairs Manager

I felt good as I listened to the reactions of colleagues after they had viewed the 2010 TVI Resource Development Philippines, Inc. (TVIRD) Institutional Audio Visual Presentation (AVP) (watch the AVP here) that the Public Affairs team produced in cooperation with all the company’s other departments. The 22-minute documentary film, shot mostly in Canatuan, has brought home the message that while TVIRD is doing business in the ancestral land of the Subanons, it has made a positive impact on hundreds of lives, especially the lumads (indigenous people), one of the most disadvantaged sectors in the Philippines.

“It’s only now that I really appreciated the fact that many people work hard so that our operations will continue to succeed,” says Efren Luy, Lead Man under the Civil Engineering and Services (CES) group. “The roads we are maintaining have helped a lot of farmers and their families. Amazing! We can already produce our own film where we TVIRD employees are also the actors!”

Shot with many of the breathtaking views in Canatuan as backdrops, the AVP anchors on the story of a Subanon family whose members’ lives have changed for the better after TVIRD began mining in their village. It is also about the company and how it won the support of the mixed cultures of peoples – Subanons, Muslims and Christians –residing in its host and impact communities, making TVIRD perhaps the first mining firm to successfully operate in the Zamboanga Peninsula, a post-conflict zone.

“We’ve already come a long way,” comments Teofilo Cayabyab, a former small-scale miner who operated in Canatuan in 1996, about six years before TVIRD embarked on an environmental cleanup in the area. “So many things have changed -- changes that are all for the better.”

While viewing the AVP, he reminisced the hardships that Canatuan residents had to endure because of bad roads, of poor working conditions in makeshift underground tunnels and milling plants, of being exposed to the health hazards posed by cyanide and mercury that polluted bodies of water bodies around Canatuan.

Johnson Lingala, a carpenter of CES agrees with Umpad. Lingala, a Subanon, says he enjoyed watching the film. “We’re ‘high tech!,” he says. “It was like watching a movie. The only difference is that the actors here are from TVIRD. It gives me great joy to see that the company has done so many good things for many people. And I am happy I have contributed to the success of our operations.”

“I wasn’t aware that we were being filmed while we were working at the plant,” Primo Umpad, Flotation Operator, was laughing when he saw himself and his fellow workers at the Mill Plant in the AVP. “The big difference between this film and the movies is that this one is true-to-life!”

“We are proud to be part of TVIRD. It provides good salaries and wages to its employees,” says Neil Natividad, Tool Keeper at the Maintenance Department. “The company prioritizes employee safety and the welfare of those whom the company interacts with, including the government to which TVIRD pays proper taxes in a timely manner.”

“TVIRD offers scholarship to needy children,” adds Manolo Cajatol, Light and Heavy Equipment Mechanic also at Maintenance Department. “We will always support the company so that it will be able to meet its objectives.”

As part of the team that produced the AVP, I’ve had the chance to watched it several times. But it felt different when I saw it again with my fellow employees. There was a great sense of pride in the room whenever the film was played. Like most of them, I saw the company’s sincerity in its efforts to make people’s lives better. Indeed, there can be honor while making profit.

In Pursuit of Profitability and Sustainability

tviblog — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 06:24:36 +0400

by Yulo E. Perez
Vice President for Philippine Operations
TVI Resource Development (Phils.), Inc.

The Philippine Mining Industry, like all other industries, is faced with the challenge of striking a balance between operating profitably and ensuring long-term sustainability both of the business and the environment in which it operates. TVIRD believes that this challenge can be overcome through responsible mining: by operating in ways that meet and integrate existing environmental, economic, and social needs of the company’s host communities without compromising the well being of future generations (View Yulo Perez’s PowerPoint presentation here).

Situational Analysis

In order to move forward in a profitable and sustainable manner, TVIRD takes stock of its “assets” – internal strengths and external support systems – that can be enhanced and utilized to help address social, economic, and environmental challenges. Foremost of these challenges is the “sins of the past” stigma that continues to hound the industry; a stigma that is the root of all doubts over the industry’s ability to respond to society’s growing and evolving expectations.

As society is composed of various stakeholders with different, sometimes conflicting needs, TVIRD maps out these stakeholders and considers their needs, keeping in mind that scarce resources need to be maximized in a way that ensures the various stakeholder needs are met not only for the here and now but, more importantly, for the long haul.

Unified Approach

Aware of the stigma, TVIRD’s various units and departments – though their various programs, activities, projects, and fields of expertise – have been undertaking a unified approach to profitability and sustainability. For instance, effective cost management, although driven by the operations group, the Finance Department and Human Resources and Administration Department, come up with programs that guarantee that cost-consciousness pervades in the entire TVIRD organization. And while the company is committed to working towards enhancing the quality of life of employees and their families, it also expects them to have a strong awareness of social and environmental issues facing the industry, and to strictly adhere to high ethical standards in the performance of their duties.

As such, the men and women of TVIRD are supportive of – and take pride in – the company’s environmental and social initiatives. These initiatives include, among others, the Quadrants of Development approach to social development, the Transparency and Open Door Policy that allows stakeholders – pro- and anti-mining alike – visit Canatuan under a highly institutionalized Mine Tour Program, and the safety awareness campaign that has encouraged the blossoming of a Safety Culture at the mine site.

Reputation for Excellence

All these initiatives have borne fruit: TVIRD has earned a reputation for excellence in operations, environmental management, social development, and stakeholder relationships. At the height of The Great Recession of 2008 when it was most difficult to get financing, TVIRD, owing to a large extent to its reputation, was able to get a five-year term loan to fund the construction of its Canatuan Sulphide Plant and support facilities, including the Sta. Maria Port and warehouse. Further strengthening that reputation was the fact that TVIRD completed the plant and facilities on time and within budget. Since April 2009, the company has been exporting copper concentrates without interruption. High copper prices and the continued shipment have brought about a healthy cash flow that, in turn, has allowed TVIRD to look for ways to extend the Canatuan mine life and to look beyond Canatuan itself. TVIRD has forged partnership with a reputable Philippine conglomerate for the joint exploration of The Greater Canatuan tenement, which is within trucking distance from Canatuan. The company has likewise resumed drilling operatons in Balabag, Zamboanga del Sur, potentially TVIRD’s next gold-copper mine.

The Port of Sta. Maria Experience

TVIRD’s experience at Sta. Maria port where the Company loads out its product is an excellent case study on a specific initiative where the company has been demonstrating a unified approach to profitability and sustainability. A predominantly Muslim fishing village in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, Sta. Maria’s residents were understandably concerned at first that their main livelihood source would be adversely affected by the company’s warehousing and transshipment operations there. An added concern is its easy access to the nearby conflict areas further south of Zamboanga. As part of the overall business plan, TVIRD engaged the residents and the other stakeholders in an effort to find win-win opportunities for all concerned.

The company’s development programs are based on a new way of looking at communities; they are viewed not as “poor”, “marginalized”, or “deprived” but as having capital and assets that can be harnessed for their own benefit. If members of a community feel that they are perceived as poor, they tend to acquire a sense of helplessness and, therefore, need to be dependent. But if they are made aware that they possess assets, they gain a sense of pride, of ownership, of empowerment.

Community Assets

The Company’s experience on the ground helped its people identify at least 10 Community Assets which TVIRD hopes to tap: Financial, Information, Social capital, Human, Aspirational, Natural, Cultural, Political, Physical, Security. After having identified Sta. Maria’s inherent assets, TVIRD Canatuan’s various departments embarked on various programs, projects and activities designed to address the pressing needs of Sta. Maria stakeholders in the areas of infrastructure, livelihood, health, and education. For instance, TVIRD’s Civil Engineering Services unit improved the port facilities and opened a farm-to-market road in constructing the Barason-Busicong-Banso road. TVIRD is currently constructing domestic water systems in the barangay and surrounding villages and is helping facilitate the rural electrification program to Busicong. These initiatives spurred the hiring of residents for labor requirements and an increase in local purchases that provided a much-needed boost for the economy of local community.

Meanwhile, TVIRD’s Community Relations and Development Office conducted an information-education-communication campaign on the company’s mining operations, including mine tours for Sta. Maria’s women and fisher folk groups, as well as programs on micro financing and on capacity-building and governance.

Stable Operations

The company’s efforts to inform, consult, involve, collaborate and empower were taken in a positive light by Sta. Maria’s various stakeholders who have since have demonstrated full cooperation and support for TVIRD’s activities in their community. As of this writing, the company has conducted 14 copper concentrate shipments without stoppage. With the ongoing unified approach and engaging the community as business partners, it is assured that the stability of TVIRD’s operation in Sta. Maria will be sustained.

How I wish I am Subanon

tviblog — Fri, 28 May 2010 07:44:00 +0400

By: Rocelle I. Magpayo Officer-In-Charge, Corporate Social Commitments (Makati)

How I wish I am Subanon. How I wish I can also celebrate my roots. I couldn’t imagine my life if I did not meet the Subanons in Canatuan. This is something big for me, an incredible experience which will remain in my heart and in my thoughts. When I joined TVI Resource Development Philippines, Inc. (TVIRD) in 2006 for a human rights research project, I thought of the Subanons as merely literature, I didn’t envision that one day I will get to know them better and be part of their community.

Celebrating one’s culture is something that I adore from the Subanons. Being exposed to their day-to-day activities and somehow being involved in their lives is truly a life-learning experience. I consider the tribe as my newfound family. They call me “Noh,” Subanon term for a cheerful girl. I call the elders as Bamba (uncle), Dada (aunt), Amaulang (grandfather), and Inaulang (grandmother). When I see them in the morning, they will either cuddle me or tap my shoulders and greet me “Noh, bais si solom” (Roc, good morning). They tell me everything, aside from tribal and community matters. They are used to opening up with me their personal stories. It’s as if I am part of their tribe, of their families.

Roc and priestess Susana Davi doing a Subana dance – Susana is wife of the late Bolian (Subanon priest) Armando Davi, she conducts rituals for different occasions and events within the Subanon ancestral land, including the TVIRD mining concession area

Culturally, the values system of the Siocon Subanons is deeply rooted in their faith and beliefs. As descendants of Apo Manglang, these peace-loving people have a strong bond in the forces of nature. They regard the existence of spirits and supernatural entities inhabiting the environment. The offering of “pangasi” (Subanon rice wine), rice, meat, “kamanyang” (frankincense), blood from animals (chicken/ cow/ pig) during spiritual rites is a gesture of their respect in the natural resources given to them by Apo Mikpongon (their Supreme Being).

Generally, the Subanon’s spiritual rites is regarded to offer gratefulness and to respect and honor the spirits in the water, forest and the mountain. They pray for abundance and protection from illnesses and misfortune.

An interview for her reseach on Subano culture and traditions with Zenaida “Siday” Dandana, an active officer of the Subanon Women's Association Inc. (SSWAI) and area leader of the Solonsangan community

Currently, I am working on a project for the Subanon community -- the School of Living Tradition. It aims to integrate the Subanon heritage into the school curriculum in the elementary and secondary education in the ancestral domain areas of Subanons in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte. As the project progresses, I am learning a lot--cultural sensitivities and most of all I envy their ingenuity as a tribe, that they are able to celebrate their roots and culture.

Even after the mine life in Canatuan, a special spot in my heart for the Subanons will ceaselessly linger. To my Subanon community -- “Leliagenu dini pu’ melinaw.” (I like it here. It’s a peaceful place.)

Labor Day in the land of the lumads

tviblog — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:50:21 +0400

By: Joey G. Ybanez, Public Affairs Officer, TVIRD Canatuan

The honking of horns from motorbikes and four- wheeled vehicles signaled the start of the motorcade that will bring the employees of TVI Resource Development Philippines in Canatuan to the reforestation site just above the mine pit for the tree planting activity.

It was May 3, 2010, the day where workers all over the country celebrated Labor Day instead of the usual May 1, as ordered by the country’s President.

I was with the lead car where a megaphone was mounted as an official of the Labor Management Council (LMC) began educating the participants on the importance of the reforestation program to TVIRD and the Subanon community. The lead car was followed by the more than a dozen motorbikes which were sounding their horns, making the motorcade a bit raucous, but giving festive mood to the activity.

Labor Management Council (LMC) Members Rudgie Manglang (L) and Alebon Salimar (R partly hidden) hold the streamer announcing the 2010 Labor Day Celebration joined by TVIRD employees

TVIRD staff on the way to the reforestation site (L to R) Roel Ranas, Gerandito Revillas, Roberto Zamora (Maintenance) and Cirilo Agot (Finance)

It was already past 9:00 in the morning when the employees’ convoy led by TVIRD Canatuan General Manager Ely Valmores reached the reforestation site. In the short program that followed he told the participants, “We are planting trees since we recognize that we have to reforest the portion of this Subanon land which we had disturbed as we mine. Responsible mining is leaving trees to the next generations of Subanons in their homeland.”

Ely Valmores (Canatuan GM) delivers his speech during the Labor Day Ceremonies. With him (L) is Roda Biadora, Superintendent of the Human Resources and Administration Department and Diosdado Bernaldo (R) of the Mine Department, LMC member who spearheaded the tree planting activity

In the midst of the scorching heat of the morning sun, TVIRD employees planted a total of 400 Acacia auri that day. It added to the 200,000 trees planted by the Environment Department through its reforestation program. Every participant planted a tree of his or her own. The GM has planted several instead of one. Nestor “Bobong” Valenzuela of the Civil Engineering and Services (CES), Rey Carubio of the Mill Department and Neil Natividad of the Maintenance Department also did the same.

Finance Manager Jimmy Guillermo (L) and Executive Assistant to the GM Rowena Adem (R) plant their trees with happy faces

Earlier, the Human Resource and Administration Department (HRAD) hired a live band and standup comedians to entertain the workers and their families at the company’s Clubhouse with Ember Impang and Rhoda Francisco, both from HRAD doing a well applauded hosting job.

Members of the Management team, employees and their families enjoyed watching and listening to the performers’ songs, dances and comical antics until the wee hours of the night. “It was one of our many programs that nurture our employees who worked 24/7 to be able to meet our production quota,” says Cyril Baylosis, Site HRAD manager.

While Labor Day is always greeted with rallies, protests and demonstrations by workers in other parts of the country to demand benefits, the exact opposite happened in Canatuan, the ancestral lands of the Subanon lumads (natives). Here, company officials and workers and their families shared the same tables and seats and enjoying the night with performers or educational activities for the children. It showed the happy disposition and contentment of employees who are among the highest paid in the Zamboanga Peninsula Region. It also showed the harmonious relationship between the management and workers.

As we headed back to the Plant, I heard the laughter and happy anecdotes shared among the employees, a sign that indeed all is well in the land of the lumads in this part of the country.

There is pride in what we do

tviblog — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:04:24 +0400

By Ernie Rojo, Office Coordinator, TVIRD Dipolog Satellite Office

Call time was 4 o’clock in the morning. It was still dark, but we needed to be up and ready before sunrise. I was in Canatuan for the shoot of TVIRD’s institutional audio-visual presentation. The first sequence on our list was the view of sunrise from Malusok, a district in Canatuan.

The video crew focused their cameras on the green mountains in the east. Excitement built up as the first rays of the sun appeared in the horizon. As if on cue, the sun brought to life the radiant colors of nature, exposing the lush green trees on the nearby valleys. I stood overwhelmed by the breathtaking view and clicked some still shots of the rising sun while the video camera rolled. I said to myself: this is going to be a wonderful experience for me.

That was not my first time to set foot on Canatuan – I had visited the TVIRD mine site a couple of times during its Gold Project phase when I was still the executive director of the Dipolog Chamber of Commerce and Industry. At that time I was already convinced of the positive socioeconomic impact that the company has been contributing to its host communities. It was, therefore, not a difficult decision for me to join TVIRD as an employee. I know that I will be joining a responsible mining company — composed of people committed to sustainable development.

Together with the 3-man video crew from Zamboanga City and the Public Affairs team of TVIRD Canatuan (Lullie Micabalo, Joey Banez and Benjie Macalisang) I set out to rediscover Canatuan and how TVIRD’s operations have touched the lives of people in and around the mining site. The three-day video shoot brought us to almost every nook and cranny of this Subanon ancestral domain and we were able to capture life at the mine site and in the communities surrounding it. There were just too many heartwarming daily scenes – hardworking employees, productive communities, children playing and learning in school, happy families, healthy kids, and more – that at one point we decided to break the crew into two groups. I chose to join the group who interviewed a former child laborer in the small-scale mining regime that lorded over Canatuan before TVIRD began operating there and a TVIRD college scholar. Both interviewees are indigenous Subanons and children of TVIRD employees. I was also able to see for myself the development projects at the Muslim coastal community of Sta. Maria where TVIRD’s copper concentrates are being warehoused before these are loaded onto ships for export. It was enlightening to note that the 40-year old fishing village of Sta. Maria will benefit from various development projects of TVIRD such as the road opening at Busikong, water system and electrification. Livelihood projects (fish drying and salt making) were likewise being prepared to augment the meager income of the marginalized fisher folks of the coastal barangay.

In those three days that I was back in Canatuan, I witnessed -- up close and personal – how TVIRD is gaining ground in achieving its triple bottom line: People, Planet and Profit. While the ball mills at the Sulphide Plant continue to grind, there are people looking after the welfare of employees, the community of Subanon men, women and children. Likewise, environmental protection standards are set in place in all aspects of the mining operations. TVIRD is putting its money where its mouth is: in socioeconomic and community welfare projects, mine rehabilitation, health and education, among others.

There is pride in everyone at TVIRD. Everybody is making sure that at the end of the mine life, Canatuan will be returned to our Subanon brothers and sisters in a good state and that the future in will be good and bountiful for everyone to enjoy.

Quoting that last lines of the video documentary: “What TVIRD has accomplished in Canatuan may be impressive but it’s how the company does things that sets it apart. It’s not just about making good business. It’s also about making a difference. In Canatuan, the future is now.”

I am proud to be with TVIRD.

A difficult choice that deserves respect

fyeban — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:25:52 +0300

By Feliece Yeban, TVIRD Vice President for Social Commitments
(Editor’s note: This blog refers to the Reunification Ritual held in late August last year between leaders of TVIRD’s host Subanon tribe. The article on the reunification “Tribal leaders reconcile the past, unite for the future” can be viewed here: )

The reunification of the Siocon Subanon leadership is a lesson in peace building. I cannot say that peace is complete but the tribal leaders have taken a bold step to set aside differences for the greater good of their tribe in Canatuan, the host community of our Sulphide Operations in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte. Clearly they have realized that the road to lasting peace is by way of genuine socio-economic development. The reunification signifies the tribe’s taking control of the process of defining development on their own terms without TVIRD and civil society organizations pulling them towards different directions. Stakeholders external to the tribe are expected to respect the tribe’s chosen path towards lasting peace. The leaders have entered the peace process with their integrity intact, spurred only by their desire to serve their community. This is not a story of compromises. This is a story of leaders making difficult choices for the good of their people, and of outsiders letting go and respecting what is internal to the tribe.

The leadership of Timuay Boy Anoy will definitely be tested. The main challenge for him is his ability to foster solidarity among the leaders and members of his tribe and, most importantly, his ability to convince them of the most efficient and effective way to manage their royalty and assets for the uplift of the quality of life in their community. I have no doubt of the Timuay Boy’s integrity, but development is everyone’s business, not just his.

Visitors to TVIRD’s website can view a two-part audio-visual presentation on the Subanon Reunification Ritual. The presentation was produced by the Mindanao Examiner, which covered the event:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Lessons from the 49ers

tviblog — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:33:05 +0400

by Yulo E. Perez, TVIRD Vice President for Philippine Operations

(See accompanying PowerPoint presentation here)

It’s always nice to go back to your roots. Some three decades ago, I learned the ropes of my profession as a mining engineer from this university. It was during that time that I joined the UP 49ers. I thus consider it a great honor to be invited to this special double occasion – the Centennial Celebration of the UP College of Engineering and the 55th Anniversary Celebration of the UP Mining, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Association. A homecoming like this, for me, means coming home to what is in your heart. Thank you so much. Please allow me to convey, in behalf of TVI Resource Development Philippines Incorporated – the company that I represent – our congratulations and best wishes for the continued success of both the College and the Association.

To the students who have been required by your teachers and professors to listen to me, I will try my best to make your stay here worthwhile – and educational. I know for a fact that a great majority who study here are smart. Of course, I studied here! Some may even be geniuses. But all of you will agree that – to paraphrase the great American patriot Benjamin Franklin – “Genius without education is like gold in the mine.” As gold requires mining, so, too, does genius require education if it is to serve a higher purpose for mankind.

I will also try to be faithful to the theme of this celebration: “Green is the New Gold. UP 49ers. Legacy. Excellence. Virtuosity.” (I like the word “Virtuosity” because it means “Genius”. So geniuses, listen) I will try to be faithful to the theme by, first – for the benefit of those who are curious why the Association is called “49ers” – providing you a brief background on the California Gold Rush of 1849. Second, I will tell you about my company and its activities. And third, I will discuss what have remained and what have changed in the mining industry, as exemplified by my company, since 1849.

The American Dream

In the early 19th century, the United States was an overwhelmingly agrarian society. The American Dream then was not to win fabulous wealth, but rather to achieve "competency” – which meant that independence came from owning enough land to support a large family, free from debt or dependency on wage labor for sustenance. Industriousness, prudence, and frugality were the traits that would allow a man to achieve his competency, maintain it, and pass it on to his children.

Throughout the early 19th century, this American Dream of the farmer became harder and harder to achieve. Rapid population growth, rising land costs, the industrial revolution, and the expansion of banking and the cash economy combined to draw more and more erstwhile independent farmers into dependence on the market. Many Americans, fearful that wage labor would never allow them to escape dependency upon their employers, denounced the emerging economic regime as "wage slavery" and sought to restore the old agrarian order. They migrated thousands of miles to the western frontier, where free land allowed them to recreate old-fashioned agricultural communities.

The California Gold Rush was fueled by the same hostility towards wage labor, but it offered a new and dramatically different alternative. The Forty-Niners – the original ones – swarmed west in 1849 dreaming of an escape from wage slavery achieved not through agrarian competency but through instant, dazzling wealth. Their values were not thrift, prudence, and industriousness, but instead swashbuckling enterprise and good fortune. Historian H.W. Brands argued: "California presented to people a new model for the American dream – one where the emphasis was on the ability to take risks, the willingness to gamble on the future."

Who we are

Now let me tell you about my company – TVI Resource Development Philippines, Incorporated or TVIRD.

TVIRD is the Philippine affiliate of TVI Pacific Inc., a publicly-listed Canadian mining company focused on the exploration and production of precious and base metals from district scale large system, high margin projects located in the Philippines.

Our company is a domestic corporation operating a mining project in Canatuan, Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte. We operate by virtue of our Mineral Production Sharing Agreement or MPSA with the Philippine Government. The MPSA grants TVIRD the “exclusive right to explore, develop, and utilize for commercial purposes gold, silver, copper, zinc and other minerals existing within the contract area.”

TVIRD’s Canatuan Mine began mining and milling operations in mid-2004 producing gold and silver doré, thus making Canatuan the first foreign-invested mine in the Philippines to reach production stage after the passage of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. The project covers a mining concession wholly owned by TVIRD consisting of over 508 hectares that encompass a polymetallic sulphide deposit, incidentally falling within the Ancestral Domain of the Subanon Indigenous People.

On a gold equivalent basis, the Canatuan mine produced roughly 140,000 ounces of gold from 2005 to early 2008. We started decommissioning our gold and silver project in April 2008.

TVIRD began construction activities for its copper and zinc production and support facilities, including a warehouse in Sta. Maria Port, Siocon, in June 2008, and commissioning activities for this second phase of the company’s Canatuan operations on November 15, 2008. The company made its first copper concentrate shipment in March 2009. Last August, we made our sixth shipment of concentrates, increasing our total exports to 29,705 dry metric tonnes since March. The sixth shipment brings the company’s total estimated gross revenue for copper concentrates to over 34 million dollars for 2009.

We take (and manage) risks

We in TVIRD would like to think that we would not have gone this far in our operations if we have not demonstrated in Canatuan the more admirable traits of the original 49ers during the California Gold Rush. The most notable of these traits is the ability to take (and manage) risks.

From the late 1980s to the late 1990s, small-scale mining activities illegally occupied Canatuan. TVIRD worked on offering a better alternative to the Subanons (the IPs), the local and national government and even the small scale miners in managing the resource, environmentally and socio-economically. TVIRD & the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, in partnership with the Subanon community, dismantled the mercury amalgamation plants. TVIRD implemented a year-long environmental cleanup, undertaking to remove toxic pollutants including cyanide and mercury. In 2004, TVIRD also initiated a relocation program for the small-scale miner community.

The Subanons, realizing that resource development is their passport to progress, sought the assistance of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in an effort to secure Canatuan from criminal elements. In response, the AFP formed a security unit composed mostly of Subanons who have since demonstrated their ability to keep the peace and ensure the continuation of the progress begun by TVIRD in their community. Progress came in the form of employment, education through better schools, infrastructure through bridges and electricity, clinics, and livelihood, among others. Allow me to dwell more on these later.

But while the values of the California 49ers were swashbuckling enterprise and good fortune, the men and women of TVIRD have held on to the values of thrift, prudence, and industriousness of the pre-Gold Rush years.

Two Thousand and Eight, particularly in the months after the decommissioning of our Gold-Silver Project, was perhaps the most challenging year for our company. We were not producing anymore and, therefore, did not have funds to build the plant and support facilities for our next project, copper concentrate production. We managed to get bridge financing in trickles. But towards the end of the year, in September to be exact, Wall Street crashed and talk about another Great Depression was rife. It was, arguably, the most difficult time in 2,000 years to get funding as financial institutions worldwide fell by the wayside one by one. But thanks to what we believe is the reputation we built on account of the operational expertise we have gained during our Gold-Silver Project, a Hong Kong-based lending firm agreed to bankroll the remainder of what we were constructing.

As I mentioned earlier, we began construction activities for our Copper Project in June 2008, and started commissioning in November of the same year – six months in all. We managed to complete the project on time and under budget! Then, 10 months later in March 2009, we began commercial operations with our first copper concentrate shipment. Next week, we will make our seventh shipment, in keeping with our four to five week shipping schedule.

Triple Bottom Line

Our enterprise, clearly, is anchored on the promise of wealth, as sought by the Forty-Niners of 1849. But the way we do business is tremendously different. We subscribe to a business principle that can be summed up in a phrase coined in 1994. It’s called the “Triple Bottom Line”. In practical terms, triple bottom line accounting means expanding the traditional reporting framework to take into account ecological and social performance in addition to financial performance. While the Forty-Niners sought only one bottom line: profit, we seek the Triple Bottom Line of the “Ninety-Fourers”: People, Planet, Profit.

We’d like to think that we’re faring pretty well in all fronts. In the “Profit” front, we just announced last week during the Mining Philippines 2009 Conference the encouraging results of our operations for August.

Profit

Our Canatuan operations have achieved increased levels of copper concentrate output with declining production costs. Last month, we produced an average of 198 tonnes per day of copper concentrates, 60% higher than the year-to-date average of 124 tonnes per day. Our average daily throughput rose to 1,804 tonnes, or 47% higher than the year-to-date average of 1,228. Copper concentrate recovery was in excess of 90% as the Sulphide Plant attained a stable state of 95% availability. As a result of our increased throughputs and higher efficiencies, average cash costs per pound of copper equivalent produced decreased to 47 US cents or 23% lower than the year-to-date average of 61 cents.

All these translate to our ability to ship within four to five weeks, which, in turn, translates to revenues. TVIRD’s improved cash position resulting from our operational successes provides us with the financial resources to execute a portion of our growth plans.
These plans include providing funds for the Zinc Circuit and Power Line components of the Sulphide Project, as well as accelerated exploration of near-mine tenements and other projects identified for priority follow up by management.

A good percentage of our profit goes to the other two bottom line fronts: People and Planet. And here you’ll see the big difference vis-à-vis 1849.

People

By 1870, the native American Indian population in California has dwindled to about one-fifth of the size before 1849, many dying from disease introduced by the original Forty-Niners, or systematically chased off their lands, or marched to missions and reservations, or enslaved, or even brutally massacred. Over 4,000 Native American children were sold.

In Canatuan, the Subanon population has more than doubled to over 2,000, many of them gainfully employed in our operations and enjoying salaries and benefits that are higher than their counterparts in Western Mindanao. They have improved houses in settlement areas within their ancestral land that TVIRD designed and planned with them. All of them have access to the company clinic, manned 24/7 by competent medical personnel. Their children now have better schools that TVIRD helped build, taught by teachers, many of whose salaries are paid for by the company. Some of them are company scholars, too. These children are brought to and from their schools by a company school bus – perhaps the only one of its kind in Mindanao. They now have access to better roads, to electricity, to potable water, and to proper toilets. The adults get to attend alternative learning systems, to learn livelihood skills and training that provide them lifelong employability, and to form self-help groups for microfinance programs.

The programs under our Social Development and Management Plan are focused on what we call the “Quadrants of Development”: Responsive Education, Health and Sanitation, Livelihood, and Infrastructure. In each Quadrant, our company is guided by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals in identifying specific projects.

Planet

The original Forty-Niners dug up 12 billion tons of earth - excavating riverbeds and blasting apart hillsides. In addition, they used mercury to extract gold from the ore, losing 7,600 tons of the toxic chemical into local rivers and lakes. The amount of mercury required to violate health standards today would be equivalent to one gram in a small lake.

When TVIRD produced gold and silver in Canatuan, we used cyanide to extract these metals from the ore. The tailings containing cyanide were contained in an impoundment facility called the Gossan Dam, for which we spent over 170 million pesos to build. This dam was decommissioned after we stopped our gold and silver operations in April last year. You see, cyanide is destroyed when it is exposed to sunlight and turns into nitrogen. The tailings in the Gossan Dam are now drying up. Depending on what our Subanon hosts want to do with it, it surely can be a good area for planting trees like abaca or rubber tree within the next year or so.

For our Copper-Zinc Project, we have built another dam, which we call Sulphide Tailings Dam. As in the Gossan Dam, top, specialized engineering firms are in charge of the design and construction management of the Sulphide Dam. The two dams were designed for the Maximum Credible Earthquake and Probable Maximum Flood. This means the dams can withstand an intensity 8.5 earthquake or can handle water from rains that could happen every once in 100 years.

Tailings Management, as exemplified by our Gossan and Sulphide dams, is just one component of our efforts to manage and protect the environment in Canatuan. The other three components are Soil Loss and Erosion Management, Reclamation and Rehabilitation, and Water Quality Monitoring.

For our Soil Loss and Erosion Management initiatives, restoration and protection measures are implemented for both the disturbed and non disturbed areas within the mining operations areas.

Under Reclamation and Rehabilitation, we conduct tree, shrub and grass planting activities to assist the natural reforestation process. Approximately 60,000 trees have been planted within and around the MPSA area. Approximately 50 hectares within the MPSA area have been replanted and are undergoing active reforestation.

And finally, we conduct daily, weekly and quarterly Water Quality Monitoring of the tailings impoundments, streams and rivers continues on an ongoing basis. Seventeen long-term monitoring stations are sampled on a quarterly basis by a multi-partite monitoring team headed by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau. Results of the sampling and laboratory testing programs indicate that the water quality continues to meet the regulatory and permit conditions.

Beyond Canatuan

As with TVIRD’s previous gold and silver operations at the same site, the cash generating operations at Canatuan copper and zinc project will serve as the continuing platform for the development and exploration of other projects within the company’s operational sphere. This will include continuing exploration efforts on the surrounding Canatuan tenements to develop one of the many previously identified prospects into a defined orebody, the feed from which could be trucked to the newly constructed plant to extend the mine life at Canatuan.

TVIRD is now looking beyond the development of the Canatuan sulphide plant to its second development-stage property and planned production center at the Balabag Gold and Silver Project in Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur.
Our exploration personnel will also continue examining the significant potential of its largely unexplored land position in other areas in the Zamboanga Peninsula. This extensive portfolio of properties represents the forward opportunities for the company.
Never lose the lessons of 1849

Indeed, mining, as you’ve seen from TVIRD’s operations in Canatuan, has come a long way since 1849. The technology and equipment used to develop earth’s resources have changed, the way the industry views and deals with its various stakeholders have improved, and the laws governing the industry have become more humane and conscious of people’s rights. To those who still view mining with a suspicious eye, we in TVIRD employ communications as the basis of understanding and engagement. Our continued, comprehensive, stakeholder-oriented communication program called “This Mine is Yours” espouses transparency and open door policy. This program has resulted in growing positive interest and support from national and local government agencies, media organizations, and business groups.

Some of you may ask: “Considering the many unpleasant things associated with the Gold Rush of 1849, why should the UP Mining, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Association continue to refer to its members as ‘49ers’?” As I mentioned earlier in my speech, genius – or “Virtuosity”, as our theme aptly declares – requires education, that is, learning. The past is a wellspring for learning. And 1849 – and the original Forty-Niners – teach us many lessons. Some good, some bad. Some winning. Some losing. But as somebody put it, in any situation, win or lose, never lose the lessons.

The original Forty-Niners still continue to teach us valuable lessons. And the mining industry continues to learn from those lessons. We in TVIRD would like to think that we are putting to good use those lessons. And we are reaping the rewards. Margaret Fairless Barber, in The Roadmender, said it best: “To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward.”

To the students, thank you for listening. To the organizers of this forum, thank you for giving us the opportunity to share with you the TVIRD experience.

Maraming salamat at magandang araw po sa inyong lahat.

Keeping track of our development projects

tviblog — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:17:17 +0400

By Feliece Yeban, TVIRD Vice President for Social Commitments

In keeping with the TVI Resource Development Philippines, Inc.’s (TVIRD) transparency policy, we are making available for our stakeholders the Social Development and Management Plan (SDMP) monitoring reports that the company submits to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB ). (Please see SDMP Semestral Report – January to June 2009 here).

The SDMP is a mining company’s overall social development plan to ensure that mining-affected communities benefit from resource development. It is equivalent to at least 1% of the company’s direct mining and milling cost. For our current Sulphide (copper-zinc) operation, the total SDMP cost is projected at P28 million pesos spread over five years from 2009-2013. This number is based on a preliminary estimates; the final requirement will be adjusted as our actual mining and milling costs are known. But our approach to Social Commitments and Sustainable Development is based on both community participation and assessment of needs. So, as with our previous Gossan Project SDMP, we will attempt to accomplish our defined programs and it is possible that we will actually spend more than the minimum requirement.

To ensure that TVIRD implements its SDMP, the Government requires the company to submit accomplishment reports on a quarterly and a per semester basis. The MGB’s SDMP team validate these reports in the field. The reports contain the specific projects carried out by the company and the performance of the company in terms of its SDMP financial obligations. The reports also serve as the company’s compass that helps determine if changes are necessary in the SDMP implementation strategies.