Disaster might befall new gold-rush site, OCD fears

DAVAO CITY — Regional officials of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) fear that a disaster might befall the newly discovered gold mining site at Mt. De Oro in Maco, Compostela Valley with the influx of thousands of people there.

Carmelito Lupo, the OCD’s Southern Mindanao (Region 11) director, said more than 6,000 small-scale miners are now in the gold-rush site in Barangay Barile.

Lupo has placed the gold-mining site under maximum risk level, especially with the onset of rains that could trigger landslides and the absence of any proper and comprehensive planning for mining activities there.

The civil defense office has gathered reports that the miners have dug hundreds of tunnels and wantonly cut trees in the area, causing the soil to erode.

Authorities said only 80 of the nearly 1,000 tunnels in the new gold-rush site are registered.

The Mines and Geosciences Board (MGB) earlier had ordered a halt to mining operations in the area after a fact-finding body cited the dangers to lives and property posed by landslides.

Under its mandate, the MGB can order the stoppage of mining operations in an area should lives be imperiled and until after precautionary measures are put in place.

Aside from the danger of landslides, security has also been a problem in Mt. De Oro with the over 6,000 small-scale miners slugging it out for patches of land they could mine, thus resulting in violence.

The Southern Mindanao police command has formed a composite team with the military unit deployed in the area to address the security concerns there.