Kalinga gov’t, NGO start anti-mercury use in mines

By Gigi Dumallig

BALBALAN, Kalinga-- The provincial government and the non-government organization Ban Toxins (Bantox) have started a project to break off small-scale miners from mercury dependence in local mines here.

Starting the groundwork, information education campaign and demonstration on use of an alternative method was recently conducted at the Gaang Mines of Barangay Sesec-an, this town.

Leoncio Na-oy of Bantox, a nongovenrnment organization member said the IEC included lecture on mercury poisoning and hands-on demonstration on the construction and usage of borax slosh boxes as an alternative for the mercury process in extracting gold.

The miners, he said were very receptive on the idea of adopting a new mining method after getting to more on the devastating effects of mercury on their health and environment.

Having witnessed the demonstration results, the miners became more convinced to shift their methods after discovering that they are able to extract more gold using borax, he said.

He related that during one of the demonstrations, the mercury process has produced 1.2 grams of gold while the borax slosh method extracted 4.3 grams of gold using the same amount of randomly picked ore. Gold quality using borax he said is also higher, which translates to higher selling price for the miners.

Engr. Dominic Sugguiyao of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office said that in an effort to eventually stop mercury usage in local mines, ENRO will include in next year’s work and financial plan the conduct of additional training and the construction of borax slosh boxes for the demonstrations.

Having seen positive reception of the miners, the province he said will emulate the process and introduce the same to other miners who have yet to undergo the training especially in the municipality of Pasil where a larger number of miners are operating.

To strengthen the campaign, there is a proposal for the provincial government to set a policy enforcing mercury ban including proper disposal of products with mercury contents such as used batteries, light bulbs and others.

Bantoxins has selected Balbalan as pilot for their training in the province after getting reports that mercury contamination had been detected in major river networks in the locality.