Ecological and social consequences of large-scale mining

Since it is cheaper, mining in the Philippines increasingly means open pit mining, even though it consumes 50 times more land and is more damaging to the environment than underground mining. Whole mountains are blown up and levelled to the ground – with disastrous ecological and social consequences: deforestation causes erosion, land slides and desertification. Rivers silt up and the silt makes fields and land infertile. Rivers and the groundwater are poisoned by cyanide and quicksilver (which is needed to extract the gold from the rocks). The waste water ditches, which are actually supposed to detain the toxic water, are leaky at times (or they even crack and consequently poison whole rivers and the abutting land, like what happened on Marinduque Island in 1996 and in Sipalay, Negros in 1997). The ground water level sinks, meaning springs and wells dry up and the water supply for the house and field becomes imperilled. The ground plummets and houses are destroyed.

Quake-like concussions caused by dynamite explosions disturb inhabitants and cracks form in their houses. Village communities are dispelled from their land. This occurs either immediately because the land will then be used for the exploitation of minerals and the construction of necessary production buildings, or step by step, because the surrounding land can´t feed them anymore, their water supply is destroyed or because their homes collapse. Village communities disintegrate; because they either argue about the projects, or because they break apart due to emigration. This poses a problem especially for indigenous people, who are directly linked to their land and their traditional communities. Countless people, who are exposed to metallic toxins released due to mining activities, get sick. Nonetheless there are Environmental Compliance Certificates (EEC). Because the vague promise exists (and the legal regulation), that mining companies renaturate everything when they are done with their operations.

Source: Niklas Reese & Rainer Werning (ed.): Handbuch Philippinen. Horlemann Verlag.