Phivolcs: Magnitude-4.7 quake rocks Surigao area
February 4, 2010A magnitude-4.7 quake rocked the Surigao area in Mindanao Tuesday night, but state seismologists said there was no initial report of casualty or damage.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the quake was recorded at 7:19 p.m., with the epicenter traced to 97 km northeast of Surigao City.
It said the quake was tectonic and was felt at Intensity III in Socorro, General Luna, Surigao del Norte; and Loreto, Dinagat Island Province.
Phivolcs said the quake was felt at Intensity II in Surigao City and Tandag, Surigao del Sur; and Intensity I in Placer, Surigao del Norte.
The United States Geological Survey said the quake measured at magnitude 4.6 and traced the epicenter to 45 km northeast of Surigao; 100 km south of Guiuan, Samar; 135 km north of Butuan, Mindanao; or 720 km southeast of Manila.
Earlier Tuesday, a predawn magnitude-3.8 quake rocked parts of Northern Luzon but Phivolcs also said there was no casualty or damage to property.
Phivolcs said the quake was felt at 5:20 a.m., and was tectonic in origin. It said the epicenter was 17 km northeast of Dagupan City in Pangasinan province.
The quake was felt at Intensity III in Baguio City; Dagupan City; and Urdaneta City. It added the quake was felt at Intensity II in Clark Field, Pampanga; and Intensity I in San Roque village in San Manuel town in Pangasinan.
Phivolcs said no damage was reported, and no aftershock is expected. - KBK, GMANews.TV
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Magnitude 4.9 quake rocks Caraga
January 30, 2010MANILA, Philippines - A Magnitude 4.9 earthquake rocked parts of Caraga region Thursday late afternoon after a tremor also rocked Catanduanes province before dawn on the same day.
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the epicenter of the quake was located at 70 kilometers northeast of Surigao City and the depth of focus was 80 kilometers. It said the tremor was tectonic in origin.
Phivolcs also said that the quake was felt at Intensity IV in Surigao City; General Luna, Surigao del Norte; Intensity III in Socorro, Surigao del Norte; and Intensity II in Mainit, Surigao del Norte.
No one was reported injured due to the tremor. There were also no report of aftershocks.
Before dawn Thursday, a shallow 6.0-magnitude earthquake jolted Virac town in Catanduanes province.
The Phivolcs said the Catanduanes quake struck 156 kilometers northeast of Virac town at 2:49 a.m..
The quake was felt at Intensity 3 in Virac town and Naga City and Intensity 2 in Legaspi City in Albay province, Cabid-an in Sorsogon and Guinayangan in Quezon province.
Exactly a week ago, a magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck northeast off the coast of Virac at 10:02 a.m. There were no reported damages from the earthquake. With a report from Charmane Awitan, ABS-CBN News Caraga
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Abacus sets plan to boost mining unit
January 28, 2010Higher gold prices have prompted listed holding firm Abacus Consolidated Resources & Holdings Inc. to ramp up gold exploration activities in its Northern Mindanao site, eyeing to start full production by 2013.
Abacus corporate secretary Joaquin San Diego told the BusinessMirror that the company has restarted talks with various investors for the possibility of further investing an estimated $3 million to $5 million to bring the mine to full operations.
He declined to name the interested parties, only saying that these are a mix of local and foreign investors.
This follows the recovery of gold prices, which ended last year at above $1,200 per ounce from $900 per ounce in early 2009.
“For a time, the recession set the [plans] back considerably but now [several parties] have showed interest [and] have put their plans back,” said San Diego in a phone interview. “Given [the current] gold prices, it is going to be viable from a business point of view,” he added.
The holding firm’s gold mining activities are under wholly owned subsidiary Abacus Goldmines Exploration and Development Corp., which remains in the pre-operating stage.
As part of the plan, San Diego said the holding firm is open to giving up 40-percent ownership in Abacus Goldmines. This will allow the new partner to handle the management and operations of the mining venture.
“This will be an operating partner [but] nothing has been signed yet,” added San Diego.
Abacus holds 102 gold mining claims in Agusan del Sur and Surigao del Sur, and seven coal mining blocks—each containing 1,000 hectares— in Surigao del Sur.
The holding firm, which is also involved in the real estate and financial services sectors, remains open to other business opportunities, said San Diego.
The company had recently submitted a proposal for a joint venture to build the 100-kilometer natural gas pipeline from Batangas to Manila. San Diego said the proposal, submitted to the Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp., is still under evaluation.
This will be funded by the sale of Abacus’s 18.23-percent stake in listed lotto provider Pacific Online Systems Corp. which the firm “hopes” will be completed by the first quarter this year.
The parent company of Abacus, Blue Stock Development Holdings, acquired on Wednesday a 15.10-percent stake in listed real estate and mining firm ATN Holdings Inc.
San Diego, who also sits as corporate secretary of Blue Stock, said the shares—composed of 20.75 million A shares and 47.24 B shares—were valued at market value.
This values the buy-in at P562.07 million, while ensuring Blue Stock of at least a board seat in ATN. He said there is no plan for now to increase the stake of Abacus in ATN.
“It’s mainly we like the company and we will probably would want to do something more with it,” noted San Diego.
Shares of Abacus lost 3.57 percent to end Wednesday’s session at P0.81 apiece. (Businessmirror) (more…)
7 armed men burned mining equipment in Surigao City
January 18, 2010CAMP RAFAEL C. RODRIGUEZ, Butuan City, Jan. 15 (PNA) — Seven heavily armed men swooped down on a mining site and burned its mining equipment at Sto. Nino area, Barangay Mapawa, Surigao City last Tuesday evening, a belated report reaching the police regional headquarters here on Friday stated.
A report coming from the Surigao City Police Office (SCPO) also said that the unidentified men wearing bonnets, armed with M16 Armalite rifles and hand guns entered the mining site of Greenstone Resources at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday and round-up the miners and guards on duty and ordered them to drop on the ground.
Immediately, the armed men burned the backhoe equipment and instantly fled to unknown direction.
No one was reported hurt during the incident.
Reinforcing police force from SCPO arrived in the area but the perpetrators already fled, the field report said.
Police investigators in the area are still determining the motive of the incident and identities of the perpetrators.
Chief Supt. Lino D. Calingasan, regional director of Police Regional Office 13 ordered the SCPO and Surigao del Norte Provincial Police Office to jointly conduct an in depth investigation for the immediate arrest of the perpetrators. (PNA) (more…)
NPAs torch heavy equipment in Surigao del Sur
January 12, 2010Suspected Communist Terrorists (CTs) burned heavy equipment in two separate places in one day. The terroristic act happened recently in Barangay Anahao Daan, Tago and hinterland Barangay in Lanuza, this province.
As reported earlier, around 2 o’clock dawn of Friday (Jan. 8 ), CTs hacked a hectare of Banana Plantation of owned by DOLE Philippines, Inc. and burned a unit of backhoe owned by Ventic Construction based in Davao and a contractor of DOLE Philippines, Inc. On that same day at around 2:30 in the afternoon, the 58IB of the Philippine Army confirmed that the CTs again burned four units of wrecker truck owned by Carumba trucking Services, a sub-contractor of SUDECOR.
In a statement, the Philippine Army said, they believed that CPP-NPA are perpetrating the terroristic acts. “Said strategy is always repeated whenever the company refuses to pay the revolutionary tax,” Army personnel said.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Army appeals that Peace and Development could only be attained in Surigao if the people will cooperate.
The two companies in Surigao del Sur had economically help the province to alleviate the lives of the Surigaonons from poverty, and great opportunities to those who want to land a good job living in nearby towns where these companies are operating. (PIA-Surigao del Sur) (more…)
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