Gozun orders 45-day mining moratorium in new gold-rush site

DAVAO CITY — Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Elisea Gozun has ordered a 45-day moratorium, starting last Thursday, on all mining acti—vities in the new gold-rush site in Mt. De Oro in Maco, Compos—tela Valley.

Gozun personally conveyed the order to the thousands of miners at the site in Barangay Barile during a visit the other day.

Environmental authorities fear that the wanton digging of tunnels and cutting of trees in Mt. De Oro might trigger landslides in the area.

Gozun gave the small-scale miners, numbering nearly 6,000, two weeks to dismantle their rod mills. She also ordered them to stop cutting trees.

The Mines and Geosciences Board (MGB) earlier warned that the soil in Mt. De Oro has become so soft that landslides are imminent due to the unabated digging of tunnels.

Of the over 1,000 existing tunnels in Mt. De Oro, only 80 are registered, authorities said.

They also bewailed peace and order problems in the site, with at least two to three people killed each week as the miners fight over patches of land to dig.