The Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment welcomed the planned closure of the FCF Minerals Corporation mine in Barangay Runruno, Quezon, Nueva Vizcaya by the end of 2026.

According to the group, the planned closure proves that collective struggle can drive away plunderers. This victory was achieved from years of resistance by the Nueva Vizcaya people, indigenous communities, environmental defenders, and their supporters to drive out the foreign plundering corporations.

FCF Minerals announced on February 18 that it will halt its operations in Runruno after the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) suspended the company’s exploration permit in Dupax del Norte on February 5. The prospective mine construction in the area will supposedly extend the Runruno mine. But because of the Dupax suspension and near-depletion of Runruno’s gold-molybdenum reserves, the company had only the option to discontinue its operations in Runruno. The company blamed its decision partly on the “lack of clear MGB regulation on allowing the completion of exploration programs” in Dupax del Norte.

FCF Minerals flaunted the supposed “economic contribution” that the mine’s closure would throw away, including the dismissal of over 1,500 workers. It also claimed that ending its operations would mean losing its revenue shares to the local government, tax payments, royalties, and funds tied to production for so-called community development.

“The company’s much-vaunted ‘jobs’ were never born of concern. They were crumbs thrown to the community after the company destroyed farmlands, water sources, and the livelihoods that sustained the people before mining came to Runruno,” the group explained.

According to the group, the mine not only destroyed watersheds and poisoned rivers but also ravaged the mountain terrain. Five residents died and nine went missing in the November 2020 massive landslide in the province when typhoon Ulysses hit.

The group also denounced the company’s arrogant challenge to the suspension when it declared that it was reviewing “all legal means, including administrative, contractual, and constitutional measures, to protect the company’s rights under Philippine law.”

“Reinstating Woggle’s permit will only expose the bankruptcy of the country’s mining law—a law that has long allowed large-scale corporate mining and plunder of our natural resources,” the group said.

“We challenge the MGB and DENR to uphold their suspension of the exploration permit and to finally cancel the company’s license. Stand with the people, not with the mining corporation,” the group demanded.