Small-scale miners given deadline to legalize work

By Dexter A. See

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — The provincial government of Benguet has given thousands of small-scale miners in the different parts of this province until the end of this year to legalize their operations in order to ensure that they will be covered by appropriate rules and regulations in cases of occurrence of disasters and accidents in their respective work places.

The ultimatum given by the local government was in response to growing concerns relative to the safety of pocket miners while they are conducting their respective livelihood activities due to the recent incidents that resulted in the loss of dozens of lives due to accidents at the mine sites.
Earlier, the Cordillera office of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau disclosed small-scale mining associations are having a hard time legalizing their operations because they could not get the consent of large-scale mining companies operating in the province so that they could already work out the processing of their documents to legitimize their ongoing operations.

Based on the order issued by the provincial government, small-scale mining associations must submit their secured consent from the large-scale mining companies and the private claimants in their respective work areas so they could process the issuance of their required small-scale mining permits with the provincial mining regulatory board (PMRB).

Out of the 65 small-scale mining associations operating in mineral-rich areas in the province, MGB-CAR records show there are only four groups, which were issued the appropriate permits while the rest are considered to be illegal.

However, a number of groups disclosed that the provincial government could not totally stop the illegal operation of small-scale miners because the said sector is a P5 billion industry that gives livelihood to over 25,000 individuals.

Aside from the absence of consent from large-scale mining companies which own the mineral claims in vast tracks of lands in the province and private property claimants, MGB-CAR officials claimed another problem being encountered by the different small-scale mining associations is that their work areas are within forest and watershed reservations which are prohibited from being devastated.

Since last year, 20 small-scale miners died while 30 others were wounded and rescued alive after they were trapped inside their respective working areas after huge landslides and rampaging waters of a river blocked their mine sites in Tuba and Itogon, respectively.