SunStar
Editorial Cartoon by John Gilbert Manantan
+ December 29, 2020 SEARCH and retrieval operations in Carmen Copper Corp.’s (CCC) Biga pit continue after some 480-meter bench collapsed into a watery portion at its foot some four days before Christmas.
Earlier on, engineers at the site had been closely monitoring the cracks in the vicinity, and reports said that on Dec. 21, the day of the big slide, that portion of the pit was already a restricted area. Despite the warning, some workers were still in the area as shown in a video that is now circulating on social media. The pit’s early warning device had detected ground movement and sounded off its alarm. A little past 3 p.m., workers were already told to leave the area, but must have felt no urgency as landslides in varying scales were commonplace. The big surprise was the enormity of earth that fell, the impact of which was made worse by the pool of accumulated water at the foot, throwing a big splash of mu