ITOGON, Benguet”•Pocket miners here who could not present “perfect” documents to legitimize their operations along the Ambalanga River will be “booted out,” the Cordillera office of the Environmental Management Bureau said Wednesday.
Some 88 miners will be removed after a three-month grace period granted to them lapses, EMB-CAR Regional Director Reynaldo S. Digamo said.
One of the major conditions the miners have to comply with is to abandon the use of hazardous chemicals in extracting minerals from the ore they have mined out of the tunnels in the area, Digamo said.
This would prevent the repeated discoloration of the water in the Ambalanga River, which is an indication of the use of harmful chemicals in their mineral processing operations and spilling their waste into the river system, he added.
“We leave the matter up to the concerned pocket miners because they signed an undertaking for them to institute the necessary corrective measures in relation to the operation of their mineral processing plants,” Digamo said.
“We will monitor their compliance to their commitment. because if they will not be able to do so, they have to voluntarily leave their work places or else we will seek the assistance of law enforcers for them to be physically removed out of the place,” he stressed.
The EMB-CAR director said their agency’s investigation showed the discoloration of the water in the river, which turned it bluish, indicated they used harmful chemicals such as cyanide and mercury in extracting the minerals from the ores from their working areas.
The miners, who are members of several small-scale mining associations in the Gumatdang area, committed to Mayor Victorio Palangdan, EMB-CAR officials and the Cordillera office of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau they would process the documents to legalize their operations and not use the chemicals in question.
