By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

THE House of Representatives and the Senate have adopted a resolution urging Gov. Benigno R. Fitial to withdraw an administration’s lawsuit that challenges the law reinstating the Pagan mining permit of JG Sablan Rock Quarry.
House Joint Resolution 15-19 was introduced by Rep. Candido B. Taman R-Saipan, who said the Pagan mining venture will help increase government revenue collections amid the islands’ worsening economic conditions.
The resolution asks the governor and the Department of Public Lands to fully support the immediate implementation of Public Law 15-21 that was enacted last year after the Legislature overrode the governor’s veto.
P.L. 15-21 reinstated JG Sablan’s mining permit which DPL had terminated.
Research on pozzolan ash mining and its possible market was conducted early this year, and the report is expected to come out by this week, said Taman, who used to be a special project coordinator for the mayor’s office of the Northern Islands.
He said he helped draft a development plan which included the studies on Pagan’s pozzolan deposits.
He said of the 1,282 volcanoes in the world, only three have deposits with the highest quality of pozzolan, and Pagan is one of them.
The two others are Mt. Santorini in Greece which erupted in 1600 B.C., and Mt. Vesuvius in Italy which erupted in 79 A.D.
In Europe and the U.S., natural pozzolan cement is used in constructing high-rise buildings, highways, bridges, harbors, dams, aqueducts and sewer systems.
Because the rich pozzolan deposits on Pagan could be mined and quarried for commercial purposes, it would generate immediate revenue for the government, Taman said.
JG Sablan’s Pagan mining permit was terminated by the Department of Public Lands on May 3, 2006.
The Senate and the House of Representatives then passed the bill reinstating the mining permit, which the governor vetoed.
The Legislature, however, overrode the veto.
After Senate Bill 15-45 became Public Law 15-21, the Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit to challenge its constitutionality.
The lawsuit, which is still pending in Superior Court, is delaying the Pagan mining project, according to the resolution.
Taman said the CNMI continues to suffer when there is actually a “gold mine on Pagan.”
He said he is wondering why the Fitial administration is trying to delay a project “that everybody knows can save the commonwealth.”
“We actually have natural resources that can benefit us and provide economic opportunities to our people — better public services, better education and better healthcare,” the lawmaker said.