PMEA Blog

From: Inquirer
By Daxim Lucas
MANILA, Philippines — The recent financial woes of Lafayette Philippines Inc. that brought the Australian-owned mine operator to the brink of bankruptcy has its roots in a past dispute between the firm and its supplier, according to officials familiar with the issue.
In an interview, a government mining regulator told the Philippine Daily […]

Australia-listed Lafayette Mining Ltd entered voluntary administration on Tuesday to avoid bankruptcy and give it time to obtain new capital or to sell its troubled Philippine mining business.
Lafayette was the first foreign company to operate a mine in the Philippines after a law granting full foreign ownership of local projects was upheld in 2004.
But cyanide […]

From: Philippine Daily Inquirer
By Ephraim Aguilar
LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines — Indebted by almost $240 million, the Rapu-Rapu group of companies operating a copper and zinc mine in Rapu-Rapu island town in Albay will seek court protection from creditors even as it denied claims by anti-mining groups that the mine firm has gone bankrupt.
Carlos G. Dominguez, chairman […]

From: Philippine Daily Inquirer
By TJ Burgonio
MANILA, Philippines — The financial troubles of Lafayette Mining should prod the government to close down the Australian firm’s mining project in Albay, an anti-mining alliance said on Wednesday.
Lafayette Mining, which owns 74 percent of Lafayette Philippines that runs an open pit mine in Rapu-Rapu island, entered voluntary administration Tuesday […]

From: Financial Times
By Roel Landingin in Manila
Australia’s Lafayette Mining, the first foreign company to open a mine in the Philippines, appointed external administrators to take control of the company yesterday, after it failed to pay off debt.
Lafayette said it had appointed Ferrier Hodgson as administrators to allow the company to explore a possible sale of […]

SYDNEY, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Australian-listed Lafayette Mining Ltd (LAF.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday crucial financial restructuring support from a Malaysian private equity group remains a possibility, after earlier saying the plan had collapsed.
If the restructuring fails to go ahead, the directors of Lafayette, which runs a mine in the Philippines, would need […]

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) — Lafayette Mining Ltd., an Australian company with a Philippine copper mine, said negotiations with a major potential investor to pay off debt were continuing, and the outcome was now uncertain. The shares plunged.
“The directors are of the opinion that the company continues to be a going concern,” Melbourne-based Lafayette said in […]

The exploitation of a country’s mineral resources can only be justified if it does not irreparably damage the environment and if it benefits the community and the nation as a whole. This is beyond all argument. “(From the DENR Summary Report on Rapu-Rapu)
The US$42-million (P2.2. billion) Rapu-Rapu Polymetal-lic Mining Project is intended to produce gold, […]

Lafayette Philippines has accused anti-mining groups of what it described as irresponsible and misguided advocacy that is actually anti-poor and economically destructive.
“These groups are paid to taint mining companies and seek to close them down in the guise of protecting the environment. For them, it is actually a job, which makes them fake champions because […]

An elder from the remote Philippine island of Rapu Rapu has made his way to Melbourne to call on the Australian firm Lafayette to halt its mining operations. Antonio Mingoy Casitas has brought a petition signed by 3,000 fellow islanders demanding that the mine be shut down; they say it’s polluted nearby land and waterways, […]