Mining is the process of extracting minerals from the earth. In mining engineering practice, mining is usually taken to mean the extraction of ores, coal, or stone from the earth. Ores are mineral deposits that can be worked at a profit under existing economic conditions. Stone includes industrial (usually non-metallic) minerals such as calcite, quarts, and other similar products.
Generally, minerals are classified into three groups, namely: metallic minerals (like iron, copper, and gold); non-metallic (example: limestone); and mineral fuels (coal is the best example).
Most of these precious minerals can be found in the Philippines . “The Philippines is endowed with bountiful metallic and non-metallic mineral resources,” said Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje of the environment and natural resources before the Asia Mining Congress in Singapore recently. “Currently, gold, copper, iron, chromite and nickel are the most sought after metallic commodities. Among our non-metallic resources, sand and gravel, limestone, marble, clay and other quarry materials are in great demand.”
The Philippines is one of the world’s producers of metallic commodities. Last year, the country became the third biggest producer of nickel ore, behind Russia and Indonesia , vaulting over Australia and Canada.
“With government support, the Philippine mining industry has been growing well in the last five years,” Secretary Paje said. “With favorable metal prices and the opening of new producing mines, the metallic sector grew by 39 percent in terms of gross production value.”
Mining: Legal Notes and Materials, published by the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center, Inc. and Kasama sa Kalikasan, gives us some insights on the different types of mining extraction techniques:
“Mining (or mineral extraction) usually follows a cycle of operations of rock breakage and materials-handling. Methods have been developed employing several options for rock-breakage and materials-handling.
“Rock breakage activities are undertaken to disintegrate consolidated rock (overburden, ore body, etc.) into parts of manageable size. These may be done through drilling, blasting, etc. Materials handling activities are then employed to remove and transport the disintegrated rock particles (to dumping sites n the case of overburden/waste and for further processing in the case of ores). Materials handling may be done by haulage, hoisting, excavation, etc.
“Mining can be undertaken from the surface or underground. In surface mining, the rock-breakage-materials-handling cycle is usually done first to remove (or strip) the overburden (expose the ore body), and then actual physical extraction.
“Surface mining can be done either through mechanical extraction or the use of aqueous methods, which makes use of hydraulic action or solution attack. The most common methods of surface (mechanical extraction) mining are open-pit, quarrying, open-cast and auger mining.
“Underground mining can be undertaken through various methods, including room-and-pillar, stoping, and caving. Caving methods are particularly distinct in that ‘caving,’ or the collapse of the ore body or the overlying rock is actually induced and controlled during operations.
“Open-pit mining is perhaps the most common mining methods due to its relatively low cost. Open-pit mining entails the removal of any overburden in order to expose the mineral deposit. This operation is dependent on the type of overburden. In cases where the overburden consists of highly consolidated rock, blasting (explosives) is used.”
In Mindanao , the Sagittarius Mines, Incorporated (SMI) is undertaking the open-pit mining in its Tampakan Project, “a 2.4 billion metric ton deposit, containing 13.5 million metric tons of copper and 15.8 million ounces of gold at a 0.3-percent cut-off grade.”
The project is situated on the boundaries of four provinces in the country’s second largest island: South Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, and Davao del Sur. According to some reports, the area “represents one of the largest underdeveloped copper-gold deposits in the Southeast Asia-Western Pacific region.”
However, the South Cotabato provincial government opposes open-pit mining in their area. While there are those who support what the provincial government is doing, there are also those who oppose the ban.
“We need to open our eyes to reality and be more sensible; we need this project,” Mayor Leonardo Escobillo of Tampakan, South Cotabato said. Along with the mayors of Kiblawan (Davao del Sur), and Columbio (Sultan Kudarat), they filed a petition calling for a review of recently passed South Cotabato environment code which carries a ban on open pit mining in the entire province.
“The Philippine Mining Act of 1995 does not prohibit open-pit mining,” said Secretary Jesse Robredo of the Interior and Local Government. “A local government ordinance cannot undo an act of Congress.”
Secretary Robredo explained that the provincial boards “exercise only delegated legislative powers conferred to them by Congress as the national lawmaking body. Therefore, (they) cannot exercise powers higher than those of the national legislature.”
In the Philippines, mining operations are oftentimes located in ancestral lands, forest lands, prime agricultural lands and even fishing areas. “All areas of the Philippines are technically ‘available’ for mining,” said Dave de Vera, executive director of the Philippine Association for Intercultural Development, Inc.
Speaking before a group of journalists attending the learning sessions on land use planning, De Vera cited the case of Sibuyan Island, touted to be the Galapagos of Asia and home to Mount Guiting-guiting. Primary forest covers nearly 30 percent of the area. Thirty-four exceptionally clean rivers ring the island. Fragile coral reefs and mangroves surround the island. About 60,000 people living on the island rely on agriculture as their primary source of income.
On February 1996, then President Fidel V. Ramos declared Mount Guiting-guiting as a national park. For their part, the indigenous Mangyan Taga-Bukid – the traditional caretakers of the mountain – secured Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) over their territories.
Today, 21 mining companies have applied to mine the area. “The applications cover 42 percent of the island and overlap 32 percent of the management area of the national park,” De Vera deplored. “Eight mining leases cover nearly 67 percent of the CADT of the Mangyan Taga-Bukid.”
The Catholic Church, some cause-oriented groups and environmentalists are against mining. And all of them have valid reasons. Fr. Emeterio Barcelon, SJ, in his column, wrote a very thought-provoking piece. “A valid objection is that mining operations sometimes leave the local population with little residual benefits after the mining operation,” he wrote.
“This is not true in most cases as, for example, the Baguio area mining. If not for the mines, tourism could not have developed Baguio as it is now. But many of the local people are still poor. This is not because of mining but because of the sharing system. Why let the mining companies take away all the gravy and leave the community in poverty. This is a problem of community administration and legislation, not of the extraction of minerals from the mountains.”
The Catholic priest further stated, “We do not need carpet-baggers. We want responsible miners who are willing to give a fair share of the harvest t0 the community. We need jobs. We need wealth creation. We need mines. We need responsible mining as well as vigilant communities. We do not need blanket prohibitions. We do not need environmentalists who cry for the welfare of future generations but are blind to the problems of the jobless in the present. We do not need foreigners who think of vast lands where they come from and can afford to waste resources. We must husband every resource that we have so we do not have to go to distant lands to find work.”
