Illegal Benguet gold mills face closure

MANKAYAN, Benguet — The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) has recommended the closure of gold processing plants found to have been polluting Benguet environs.

Engineer Neoman de la Cruz, MGB’s Cordillera director, recommended to Ruben Quiwa, assistant resident manager of Lepanto Mines, that the mining company should closely monitor its workers to prevent the proliferation of illegal gold mills.

According to earlier reports, gold ore being processed by the illegal gold mills in this town’s poblacion came from those "graded" or stolen from the underground tunnels of Lepanto.

Some of the company’s miners and security guards were believed part of these illegal activities.

De la Cruz recommended to the Mankayan municipal government to conduct an educational campaign among private operators of gold mills on the health and environmental hazards posed by their operations.

A joint investigating team of the MGB and the Environmental Management Bureau discovered the indiscriminate disposal of cyanide, mercury and other hazardous chemicals by these gold mills.— Artemio Dumlao