Gambling and grumbling due to small scale mining

HAPPY WEEKEND

Gina Dizon

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- For a livelihood activity  which had been going on for years customarily unhampered  in parts of Mountain Province and Cordillera,  traditional use  of pick and shovel  to extract  gold from the bowels of the earth  and  gold used for bartering  salt  among other lowland products  in the earlier times  has gone a long way with use of  chemicals such as cyanide and mercury and blasting materials to make the job easier. 

This  economic  activity  now  makes  small scale miners to have their  operations  legalized, along with  the  demands of  the public  for small scale miners to stop the use of  cyanide in their  processing operations.

While this is so,  employment   in small scale mining in  this part  of the country takes a  considerable  slice among other  occupation as  farming which  makes  up the  bulk of  economic source  of some 150,000 residents,  with  this province considered no more a member of the poorest Club 20 provinces of the country.

Small scale mining of gold and copper  are prevalent in five areas of the province:  Mainit  and Alab of Bontoc, Fidelisan of  Sagada, Maliten in  Besao and in adjacent   Mabalite of  Tadian municipality. 

The government and provincial constituents  are  tolerant enough with no charges filed against  small scale miners for doing  this age- old  practise  declared illegal by the State for  having no permits issued by  the Provincial Mining and Regulatory Board in  accordance with the  Philippine Small Scale Mining Act of  1991 or Republic Act 7076. This is perhaps due to the fact that this practice is customarily done and that livelihood is a basic need.

Not until a  complaint was filed by   Edward Okoren of Barangay  Mainit  to fellow  iMainit small scale miners  Christopher Culallad, Donald Sagudang, Herman Fawayan  and Manuel  Mandiit   subjecting  respondents for   violating provisions of  RA 7076 for not having a mining permit  and the Forestry Code  or PD 705 for cutting trees.

The complaint cited “clear and present danger” possible erosion and collapse of a ricefield located directly above the mine site. Okoren’s ricefield is located at sitio  Avo-os where the expanding mine site is located.

While  mine sites are  located underneath a mountain or a hill,  rice fields nearby are a vulnerable target of  expanding small scale mining operations  where  miners, when they  hit a gold vein  follow this vein to where it shall lead.

Where it shall lead to nearby rice field or where a house is found above it is now the discretion of a miner whether to proceed or not. Chances are the decision is to proceed where the gold is already there, at the expense of a rice field located above.  For Okoren, he does not like mining operations done underneath his rice field. 

Along with threats of geological hazard is the environmental threat of   reduced water supply brought about by   irresponsible cutting of trees resulting to destroying a vulnerable source of water from the watersheds.  Logs are necessary in small scale mining operations when miners have to construct safety measures inside the tunnels using   timber.

The miners  dig deep into the  bowels of the earth  daring the  risk of  a mountain caving in,  and  them  devising ways  and techniques of  safe mining. Timbering is necessary. The rest is history and future danger of a place not having enough water to supply its residents of domestic and irrigation water and other geological threats as well.

With an age old livelihood activity among the able bodied men of Mountain Province who get inside the mine tunnels to source livelihood, another danger is threat to the life of the small scale miner.

I came to know of only three documented deaths inside the mines of province, one due to a rock which fell down the head of one miner and two having been caught  in an ill-timed blasting operation. 

Perhaps there are other undocumented stories of accidents.  Not only are the miners threatened. Even folks downstream mining sites are endangered.

One issue faced by small scale miners is the complaint of folks downstream due to pollution of water system from their mining operations. This was not an issue then in the olden times with no use of chemicals in processing the precious gold.

With the passing of years however and the demand of the times for quick and efficient exchange of labor, equally demands the use of mercury and cyanide in extracting gold from the mine ores.

Many a complaint has been noted among  Guinaang  folks  downstream  Mainit,  Tetep-an and  Tanulong of folks downstream of  Fidelisan mines in Sagada with  reduced  rice yield and death of  mudfish and toerh , and Tabuk rice growers  downstream Pasil in Kalinga.

The consumerist age came along with the use of mechanized equipment includingcompressor and a jack leg along with blasting materials to make the job easier.

SSM initial activities could go as long as two to three years to hit a gold vein. And in this phase some before reaching the gold vein shall quit.  There are some who are lucky enough and hit gold in six months.

This follows with hauling the mine ores and grinding these outside of mine tunnel with the use of a machine powered by diesel or crude oil for some two months.

In many cases a collective work,  all the miners cook the screened   gold dust and weigh how much their efforts had resulted  to and some bring  the product  to  gold buyers in Baguio.

All expenses are deducted from the gross cost and the next divided among everyone.  If the miners are lucky enough, they can partake a bigger share but if not, the minimum shares partaken is equivalent to what a casual government employee gets per month.     

For one whom I know who has been into small scale mining for quite some time, small scale mining is a gamble, he said.

Comes now the demand of the government for registration of small scale mining activities. Collection of taxes is an accompanying   directive in having the  small scale miners  registered  with small scale miners  organizing  and  registering as a cooperative under the Minahang Bayan program of the State.

Registration necessitates collection of taxes and vice versa.  It may be that this is one  reason why some  miners  don’t want to  register,  and instead  give whatever is their due to government  directly to the  barangay  where the mines are located.

While this is so, the illegal transport of mine ores and mine tailings out of the province is a standing issue. Granting that permits have already been issued and small scale miners are issued ore transport permits to get ore transport legalized is the standing issue of gold ores getting out of the mine site and reportedly out of the country. 

How  the mine ores and the mine tailings shall not  move out of the  mine site or out of the  province and not even outside of the country and instead  for these  mine ores  to be processed  inside the Province and inside this impoverished  is a demand. 

With small scale mining an allowed activity of indigenous peoples of Mountain Province and the Cordillera in general, how to profit the most is the question.

When this happens there is a need for a community-based milling equipment, and gold processing equipment and assay to stir and separate gold from other elements to determine the amount and value of pure gold.  And for the processing equipment to process gold ores and copper ores into the desired products such as gold earrings and bracelets equivalently needs the equipment for this.