Tuesday, July 31, 2012

the truth about mining


image from Google

We are all aware of one of the largest economic solution here in our state but these “economic solution” are diverge into two roads, one has a positive impact an of course the other one is negative. I’m talking about mining.

We citizens in this state don’t have enough background knowledge pertaining to this subject and by that “illiteracy” about mining makes our perception to mining more narrow.

Last June 9, 2012, I hurriedly went home after finishing some office matters to watch Ted Failon’s Failon Ngayon Special Report about mining and it is indeed an enriching episode and I commend the staffs for such an informative episode. Going back, this article was inspired by the show and most of the information cited below came from the show. Let us think what mining can gave us.

#Mining

Wikipedia define mining as “the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from ore body, lode, vein, reef which forms and package economic interest of the miner”.

In order to collect the minerals in a land, it is subject to remove the side waste material which is not really the direct interest of the miner. Furthermore, it will undergo to a mining process which is “the total removal of ore and waste. Also includes the removal of soil in some cases (Wikipedia)”.

When an individual wants to engage on the mining industry, he must locate an 18 million hectare land for him to start the business. With that vast land, a miner can have minerals such as: limestone, gold, nickel, chromites, metals or metal clay. Here in the Philippines, we have 68 companies who are engaged in mining. 33 of those are metallic mining and the remaining 35 are non-metallic mining companies. With these companies, only 2% is the excise tax that the local and national government can incur which is divided into two sectors. In lieu to that, the employees of the mining companies has a minimum wage of Php 250.00 a day


#Requirement2Operate
 
There are 3 requirements for a company to operate and 2 of that (1) is to have a management plan and (2) to give prior consent for the community that belongs to the land area that the mining company will operate. As cited in the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, Chapter III Sec. 16 “No Ancestral land shall be opened for mining operations without the prior consent of the indigenous cultural community concern”. In lieu to that, the Tigil Mina Group expressed their dismay by saying “Gulatan ang style”. The spokesperson of the group added that with this type of strategy, the indigenous community can’t do a thing for the surprise operation.

In the other hand, we have 3 pillars to title a mining company a “Responsible Miners”.  The first pillar, “it should have a positive effect in the economy”. Second, It’s environmental aspect and concerns on the land that the mining company is operating and lastly, it should have a “social development towards the community” in the nearby or nearest community.


#Issues

Though it may sound a little bit of relief in our economy, mining is also facing a lot of issues and the two of those issues is the environmental issues and health issues.


Environmental Issue

contaminated water (photo from Google)
It is no surprise that most of us know what are the negative impact that mining would gave us. The popular issues pertaining to environmental issues are soil erosion which is obviously flaunt in mining areas, forest logging, contamination of the soil and ground water and even the contamination of the coral reefs. The ocean is now affected by this because of the release of hazardous chemicals from mining most especially those who operates near the river banks or ocean.


Health Issue

One of the most catastrophic mining incidents in history of Philippine Mining was on March 1996 which was marked as the “Mine Tailing Incident” wherein the victims of this incident were exposed and contaminated by a hazardous chemical known as Arsenic and it led the victims to a serious infection referred as Arsenical Keratosis. Health issues are one of the serious problems that the state is facing. These affect the health of the local population which is caused by the hazardous chemicals that the mining company releases.

**These companies are bound to follow the rules and regulation to minimize the impact of the human health but some of these laws implemented will not be enforced by the local and national government due to the developing world.

Moreover, if a mining company stops to operate it will leave the mining area total dump. Now, more than 5 companies were closed due to bankruptcy and lack of requirements. The mining area was left abandon and there are no chances to live in. The government stated that the total amount for rehabilitation would sum up to Php 300,000,000.00 which includes the eradication of the chemicals that was left on the area.


Come to think of it, our country is now developing but is mining a good solution to our economic problem?

                                 http://www.psdn.org.ph/chmbio/ra7942.html
                                 Ted Failon’s Failon Ngayon

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