Task force formed vs dynamite mining in Vizcaya villages

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — The people’s small-scale mining regulatory board here created a task force to look into the reported rampant small-scale mining activities that use unregulated explosives and chemicals.

Earlier, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) said it will conduct an investigation on the small but rampant undocumented mining activities, which reportedly already claimed a number of lives in two of this province’s remote mountain villages.

Vice Gov. Jose Gambito, concurrently chairman of the province’s small-scale mining regulatory board, said a multi-sectoral task force has been formed to look into reports of illegal mining activities here.

This came after the mineral-rich Barangay Didipio in Kasibu and Barangay Runruno in Quezon town, were reportedly encroached by small miners reportedly using unregulated explosives and deadly chemicals.

In Runruno, particularly the gold and copper-rich sitios of Tayab and Compond, at least four deaths were reported last year, the most recent was last Dec. 24, wherein one Agustin Duguis, 20, was buried inside a tunnel.

Likewise, in Didipio’s Dinkidi Hill, believed to have deposits of gold and copper worth at least P30 billion, a miner, identified as Ananayo Dumolag, 55, died becuse of dynamite blast while he and at least 30 others were constructing a tunnel.

A government-sanctioned large-scale mining operation is expected to start in Didipio anytime this year by the Australian firm Australasian Philippines Mining Inc., also known as Climax-Arimco Mining Corp. The national government hopes to generate at least P30 billion from this mining project for 15 years.

Similarly, another firm Metex Mineral Resources Corp., a foreign-owned mining firm, has been conducting exploration activities in Runruno for possible gold, copper, silver and nickel deposits.

The province’s small mining board convened to discuss the growing problem of unregulated dynamite-induced mining activities here. This has also led to the creation of the task force.

"We can’t afford to hear reports that somebody got hurt or killed because of these activities. We have to do something to stop all these forms of dynamite and chemically-induced mining," Gambito said.

Last year, Gov. Luisa Lloren-Cuaresma ordered the suspension of all forms of manganese mining activities here in the wake of mounting complaints of environmental violations‚ reportedly committed by mining contractors.

She said the miners have violated some of the provisions in their permits, including the utilization of heavy equipment, which resulted in indiscriminate and massive diggings of soil, destroying the mountains and polluting the rivers.

These practices, Cuaresma feared, would result in possible soil erosions or landslides, endangering lives of villagers living downstream.

Last week, MGB regional director Jerrysal Mangaoang said they were set to conduct inquiries over the undocumented small mining activities in the mountain villages here, including Barangays Didipio and Runruno where dynamite and chemically-induced mining were reportedly rampant.

Aside from explosives, the MGB official said that some miners were also encroaching into reforestation areas as well as directly discharging deadly mining waste into the rivers.

"These unregulated practices are detrimental to the safety and health of the villagers as well as the environment. Definitely, we will ban these activities," he said. — Charlie Lagasca