Blacksand mining pros and cons must be studied well by Pangasinenses, urges Rep. Guico III

October 10, 2021 Headlines

PANGASINAN — Pangasinan’s fifth district lawmaker Ramon “Monmon” Guico III urges his provincemates to pay attention well to what will black sand mining bring to their province.
“We must study how it (project) will affect the livelihood, environment and overall economy (of the province,” the lawmaker said, while he bemoaned how his province was led in the past several years supposedly neglecting progress and fully realizing Pangasinan’s economic potentials.
As he filed his candidacy for governor Thursday morning against incumbent Governor Amado Espino III seeking his third term, Rep. Guico III expects Pangasinenses to participate in shaping the province’s march to progress by getting informed of the issues and developments like the planned black sand mining operations along the Lingayen Gulf, a protected biodiversity area.
More grassroots consultations is wanting about this project because Pangasinenses must know so that they can arrive at intelligent decisions
about their future, he stressed.
Australian mineral exploration firm Iron Ore, Gold, and Vanadium Resources (Phils.) Inc. has applied for an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) for its proposed Iron Ore Pangasinan Offshore Magnetite Mining Project in Sual, Labrador, Lingayen, Binmaley and Dagupan City covering a total area of 9,252.4506 hectares.
Although a series of public consultations were already conducted last month, Rep. Guico III, also the chairman of the House Special Committee on North Luzon Growth said, there needs more consultations on the ground level because it will be the grassroots who will either benefit if not disadvantaged by the project.
The project has been categorized by the Environment Management Bureau as Category A, an Environmentally Critical Project (ECP), which entails extraction of metallic and non-metallic minerals including extraction of oil and gas, deuterium which is done off-shore.
Pangasinan’s future must be paced towards economic progress, livelihood opportunities and economic fundamentals resting on production and services boom in key economic zones via good governance, Guico III stressed.
Artemio A. Dumlao/ABN