We hesitate upon hearing the word mining, but do we really
understand the depths and meaning of everything that is mining? Why are we
quick to judge the things that we do not really understand?
An important classification of the mining industry is
between the small scale mining industry and the large-scale metallic industry.
Artisanal and small scale mining is an emerging
socio-economic area in developing countries especially for the rural poor. They
are subsistence miners, not officially employed by a mining company, and uses
their own resources to independently mine or pan gold. They usually work with
hand tools. It is estimated around 13 to 20 million men, women and children are
directly engaged in small scale mining.
Small scale mining activities may include as simple as
panning gold in the river to the complex underground workings and small-scale
processing plants. In South Africa, artisanal miners process gold by hand crushing
the ore on open rock surface, then the pulverized ore is concentrated using
visual sorting, gold panning, sieving and by washing on riffle tables made of
plastic sheets on heaps of sand. Final gold extraction is accomplished by
mercury amalgamation. Mercury burns off using an oxy-gas torch. According to
Gerard Brimo, (President of the Nickel Asia Corporation and the Director of
Chamber of Mines) Philippines small scale mining is a big industry as gold
valued at almost P43 billion was sold in a “no-name” basis to the Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas in 2010. As the output from this sector is added to the
mineral industry it results to the distortion of the taxes paid against the
total revenue.
Large scale mining on the other hand is undertaken by big
mining corporations, multinational or local. They employ numerous labour force
and employees and they use technologically advanced equipment in a huge area.
They mine until there is none left. After the mining activities, they then
execute the rehabilitation program. During the mining period, the large scale
miners, takes care of the host community in terms of their welfare and safety.
A more stringent guideline is followed by large scale
mining. They must file for exploration permit, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau
processes their application and check if the area is open for exploration. The
large-scale metallic mines occupies about 60, 000 hectares that would only
amount to 0.2 percent land mass of the Philippines. There are many exploration
applications because the odds of finding a commercially viable deposit are low.
Mineralized lands are not conducive to agriculture. To set
an example, laterite is a soil type that is full of iron and some nickel. It is
not an agricultural area and cannot be bio-diverse. Because of this type of
soil the growth of trees become stunted. Lateritic areas are also prone to soil
erosion and siltation when it rains. It also discolour the coastal waters as
you can see a red-looking soil which is really iron oxide.
As I delve deeper into mining research, responsible mining
can be achieved if we open our eyes and be equally vigilant that mining
companies follow the law. The Philippines is positively a country to be
reckoned with, in this time and age, we can come into agreement that we should
welcome all feasible forms of economic activity to increase the speed of its
development.
Next up is an attempt to answer the question what is
responsible mining?
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