Small-scale miners blamed for mercury in Vizcaya rivers

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya , Philippines   â€“ The unabated small-scale mining is the culprit in the mercury contamination of rivers along the remote mountain border of Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino, according to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).

Mario Ancheta, MGB director for Cagayan Valley, said findings show that the once pristine Didipio River in Barangay Didipio is “biologically” dead due to small-scale mining operations in the area.

Inhabited by indigenous folk, Didipio, which is being claimed by Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya, is the base of the national government-sanctioned Didipio gold-copper project being undertaken by Australian mining firm OceanaGold Philippines.

Ancheta said it is unlikely that the Didipio mining project caused the contamination of the river with mercury, which is a banned substance in its operation. 

“It is not the large-scale mining that caused the contamination of the river but the small-scale miners who are using mercury in their operations,” Ancheta said. Small-scale miners, according to reports, use mercury to extract gold with the aid of water, which is then indiscriminately dumped into rivers. 

MGB’s statement was in response to claims by various anti-mining groups, which conducted a fact-finding mission last month, that the Didipio mining project allegedly caused the deterioration of the quality of water in rivers, creeks and streams in the area.