What Lies Beneath
The
Philippine deposits of gold, copper, chromium and nickel are considered as the
5th largest in the world. In 2009, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau
(MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) estimated
the country’s gold reserves at 5,080,785,289 tons, based accordingly on the
bureau’s consolidation of resource inventory data supplied by mining companies.
Forty provinces that have gold deposits practice different ways of mining gold
that has been hand down from their ancestors since 3rd century.[1]
The
Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) is very common to the rural areas
of the Philippines
because of the constant surge in the price of gold and easy way out of poverty.
ASGM, which occurs in more than 70 countries, provides income to an estimated
10 - 15 million miners including 4.5 million women and 1 million children.[2]
The sector produces about 500 to 800 tonnes of gold per annum, which accounts
for about 20 to 30 percent of the world’s gold supply.[3]
Despite of this, destruction of environment and human health is at stake.
The use of
mercury (Hg) in ASGM posed a very dangerous threat to the health of the miners.
It contains potent neurotoxin that impairs brain function, lowers intelligence
and causes hearing loss. It also affects women in terms of miscarriages and
birth defects. This element also destroys the environment by polluting freshwater
bodies. Moreover, small scale mining practices such as the use of dynamite in
making tunnels is one of the cause of landslides and degradation of the
mountain.
This photo
story will focus on the environment and health issues pose by the artisanal and
small-scale gold mining practices in the Philippines and it will also
showcase how the players such as the miners, townspeople and the government are
dealing with it. My objective in making this story is to educate the people
about the reality that small scale mining is dangerous but a kind of livelihood
that is essential in the national development of the country. It aims to call
on the attention of the government to regulate and supervise this kind of
livelihood for the benefit of the miners and the companies.
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