By Antonio M. Ajero
PRESIDENT Benigno Simeon Aquino III said in Davao City last week that he is more in favor of heavily-regulated large-scale mining over small-scale mining operation.
The statement came in reaction to the proposal of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines composed of 1,496-strong municipal mayors, for the national government to impose a moratorium on the entry of large-scale mining companies in the country.
“I am no longer a spring chicken. Maganda pakinggan ang resolution pero dapat makatotohanan (the resolution sounds good, but they should be realistic),” Aquino said. The statement, admittedly a slight indication of Noynoy’s political will, was met by deafening silence. Perhaps, the mayors did not expect the President to be so frank about his stand, said a grizzled mediaman who had covered the Diwalwal gold rush during the days of landslides, mercury contamination and killings which had claimed countless lives.
The reason for his stand, the President said, is that small-scale mining is more difficult to regulate and more destructive to the environment.
Such a declaration is, however, dismissed by Compostela Valley Governor Arturo Uy. According to the governor, “a well-regulated small-scale mining is better than big mining.”
The Uy brothers, Gov. Uy and Tagum City Mayor Rey Uy, were among the miners who made it big in the gold-rich mountain of Diwalwal. Two other miners, the late Monkayo Mayor Joel Brillantes and fugitive miner Nelson Tata Sala, were also known to have become millionaires, if not billionaires, from small-scale mining operations in Diwalwal. Aside from operating tunnels, the Uys were also reportedly engaged in gold trading.
Large-scale
Another political leader who reportedly shares the thoughts on mining of President Aquino is Gov. Corazon N. Malanyaon of Davao Oriental who earlier said that small-scale mining is more destructive to the environment and very difficult to regulate.
In the Davao region, the provinces of Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental are identified to have the richest sources of gold and other mineral deposits. Various big mining companies are now operating. or about to operate, there.
There were 24 holders of Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSAs) and one Financial or Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAA) holder in Southern Mindanao as of February 28, 2011 as shown by records of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Only recently, American mining company Russell Mining and Minerals Incorporated (RMMI) began a feasibility study in the Kingking, Pantukan mining area that has long been mined by small-scale miners. RMMI has an agreement with Philippine-based Nationwide Development Corp. (Nadecor), the MPSA license holder.
RMMI secured a 60-percent interest in the Kingking project in exchange for funding and preparing a feasibility study on the development of the project estimated in the memorandum of understanding at $43.5 million. The American company reportedly paid Nadecor $7.5 million with another $12.8 million as funding for Nadecor’s contribution to development capital.
Kingking is one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits in the world with a measured and indicated equivalent copper-gold resource of 791.5 Mt.
Another project in Mati City, the Pujada Nickel Project of the Asiaticus Management Corporation, is also still in its feasibility study phase since the project began in 2002.
Small-scale
Meanwhile, small-scale mining in the region has been going on for more than three decades. Among the areas taken over by local miners are Diwalwal, Kingking, Boringot and Masara, all in the province Compostela Valley.
The crude method of mining in these areas has been blamed for the pollution of various water sources in the region, notably the Naboc River in Compostela Valley whose water is heavily ` contaminated with mercury.
According to the Natural Environment Research Council, silt containing up to at least 90 mg Hg/kg (d.w.) had been deposited in rice paddies of the Naboc area during the 1990s and mixed with the rice root zone through plowing.
“The estimated total weekly MeHg intake of a human being living in the Naboc area based on the weekly consumption of 2.1 kg of rice grown in Hg-contaminated soils (15 μg MeHg) along with 1 kg of fish (220 μg MeHg) and 100 g of mussels (50 μg MeHg) from the Naboc River, would total 285 μg MeHg (equivalent to 4.75 μg/kg bw for a 60 kg adult), which is nearly three times the JECFA PTWI of 1.6 μg/kg bw. This will significantly contribute to the population’s exposure to mercury and could explain why 38% of the local inhabitants were classified as Hg intoxicated during a mercury toxicity assessment,” the NERC report stated.
Different now?
Small-scale mining today is, however, different from before, according to DENR regional director Jim Sampulna who claims that small-scale miners are already using heavy equipment like bulldozers in their mining activities, which is contrary to the ideal small-scale mining operations which is more dependent on manual labor.
“Small scale miners in the past used simple equipment and their hands. The problem is that today they are already using sophisticated equipment, like bulldozers,” Sampulna said, adding that many small-scale mining operators often violate existing rules, and that is causing too many problems for the DENR.
Worse, DENR is no longer privy to the violations committed by small-scale mining operators because this power has been devolved to the the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board (PMRB). The issuance of ore transport permit (OTP) to small-scale mining operators has also been devolved to local government units.
Governor Malanyaon admitted that small-scale mining is a big headache in her administration. The murder of her provincial environment officer in 2009 was said to be related to illegal mining and logging activities in the province.
Compostela Valley Governor Uy, however, does not share Malanyaon’s “headache” but has an opposite view of the situation. The governor is reportedly among the few who have made it big through small-scale mining. Former Mt. Diwata village chief Franco Tito himself says he would prefer that the mineral deposits of the Philippines be mined by Filipinos themselves so that every local would have the opportunity to become rich as well. He did not explain why many of the abanteros of long ago have not become as rich as you know who.
Tito, who agrees to bigtime corporate mining only if it is transparent, is involved in the massive cleanup of Naboc River which he acknowledged to have been polluted heavily by unregulated small-scale mining operations.
Ignored?
Most local politicians complain against the tendency of the national government and big mining corporations to ignore the local government units (LGU) in their activities, despite the provisions of the law to the effect that consultations must be made at the barangay level and with tribal communities, before basic mining activities actually begin.
Observers believe that this is one problem that mining operators have to address if they want to make their operations trouble-free. Another big problem is the all-out opposition to mining by the Catholic Church and environmentalists. These problems will not go away, even if the President of the republic seems to have a soft heart for large-scale, heavily regulated mining operations.
