(This is Part 2 of a series of articles of the author who recently revisited Mount Diwata, the hub of small scale mining in the south, popularly known as Diwalwal in Compostela Valley Province.)
Untold stories
It’s not all that glittery as gold. The “rags to riches” stories of some small scale miners that are usually told and re-told are fascinating tales for the grapevine. But they are so true only for so few. Unknown to many, there are a thousand- fold more untold stories about hardships and travails; failures and tragedies.
The term “small scale mining” originally refers to the crude, but to some, the simplest and quickest way of extracting gold from the ground. It is also the most dangerous in environmental terms because of the unregulated use of a dangerous substance called mercury.
Deadly
Mercury is a poisonous and highly toxic metallic substance that does not change nor evaporate nor can it be destroyed. By its quality, it stays forever. That’s the silvery liquid metal we see in thermometers or barometers. Given its nature, if released, it stays permanently in the environment, absorbed by plants like rice and edibles and unto living organisms like fishes or animals. Tragically, it eventually ends up with you and me. The small scale miners handling them are the first “slow victims.” Remember that shocking story of the “Minamata Experience” in Japan? It is an example of how children or offsprings of one generation exposed to mercury were born like freaks and abnormals. That’s how long lasting and deadly it is! Too bad but good to know.
Gold rush
Speculators, like bees, rush to areas where stories of gold discoveries abound. Diggers or miners are called “abanteros” because they move forward (“abante” in the local dialect) as the digging of tunnels progresses. They dig and dig, deep into the mountainside using bare hands with crude implements extracting soil and rock called “ore” where gold is supposed to be imbedded. The “tunnel” is oftentimes just big enough for miners to crawl into but when they hit an area where there appears to be precious ore, the hole widens and becomes bigger due to extraction. Extracted soil and rock are put inside jute sacks and physically hauled over their backs and brought outside the tunnel portal. Samples of these ores are tested for their “assay” or their gold content in grams per volume of ore. For example, an assay of “5” is usual and nothing to be excited about. Tunnel owners say an “8” assay will be viable to sustain a modest small mining operation. A higher assay is commercially good. “High grade” can convert the luckier few from rags to riches.
Crude
Iron bars, shovels and spades with bare hands are the usual implements. Hand operated power drills by better- financed tunnel operators are upgrades. Then of course, some air ventilation system, however crude and inadequate, by pumping air into the deep tunnels are for the survival of “abanteros.” Tunnel lights and submersible pumps when the digging hits underground water are necessities. They are powered by portable generator sets which by the way cannot be made to operate inside tunnels due to their toxic exhausts, hence the long electric wires going in. When the “abanteros” reach a portion that is solid rock, they blast their way using dynamites. To prop up the overhead area to prevent it from caving in (called “bar-downs”), they use timbers or slabs of wood indiscriminately taken from what remains of the forest nearby. They call this “timbering”. Some tunnel owners do cheap, rickety timbering methods thus causing occasional cave-ins or “bar – downs” that endanger the “abanteros” below.
Gold vein
Digging for ore springs hope eternal. Finding a gold vein (or “bina” in the dialect) is the ultimate goal. It is a strand of ore that contains a high concentration of gold that undulates up and down as one of the earth’s layers underground. Its thickness varies. When one “bina” is found, the “abanteros” will never let go of it obviously and the digging is a wild chase following the lode. That’s a “hit” and miners don’t usually announce it to the world lest they are in serious danger. But words do get around somehow. Just observing the activities at the tunnel portal will give one a clue of whether there’s a “hit” or not.
Tunnels go to which ever direction underground targetting where the “bina” probably is found. Not uncommon are several tunnels racing towards one target lode. Hence one tunnel from an elevated portion can hit another tunnel coming from below or from another side of the hillside. There is no “traffic officer” to do this.
If by chance another group of miners in another tunnel nearby also keeps chasing and working on a lode that is connected to what the other group is also working on, that’s a sure fuse that can explode. When the two groups meet somewhere underground digging into each other’s tunnels, trouble or violence is inevitable. It’s survival of the fittest. However, there are ways and instances when some modus vivende is forged.
With the number of tunnels in the same hillside over these years, I can only imagine the hollow maze underneath. That whole hollow hillside may just cave in when we wake up one sunny day!
Tunnel owners close or abandon or cede to someone else the tunnel when the project does not show any positive signs after considerable expense. Many tales of woe of going “pordoy” (or bankrupt) abound. Many literally lose their pants (and briefs) for failed mining ventures. But they prefer not to talk about this. Only the tales of the “high graders” gain currency.
Ball mills
The process after bringing out the ore outside the tunnel portal is also simple. The ore is pulverized or ground into small particles or dust. The grinding machine is called a “ball mill” which is actually a locally-assembled rotating drum with iron crusher thongs powered by electricity or by a generator. When the ore is broken into smaller particles or dust, water is introduced to wash away the mud and the soil and the grime while the precious gold is captured with the use of mercury. (Some “big players” however have shifted the processing to more sophisticated cyanide plants mostly built elsewhere where ores are trucked from mine sites.)
The slush or mud or grime (mine wastes called the “tailings”) which can contain residues of poisonous mercury, just flow out to the ground, then unto the waterways below. It ends up in the river and gets absorbed in some plants or trees downstream, or goes to the sea and gets into marine life and fishes. Whether this indestructible and killer substance ends up in someone’s body system eventually is a dreadful thought that many of us refuse to ponder on.
“Abanteros”
The “abanteros” are grouped into a team of from 8 to 15 persons fielded in a tunnel owned or maintained by a financier or owner. They are not normally paid with fixed wages but get an agreed share of the ores taken out. They are provided items like rice and food items for their daily grind, just enough to keep body and soul together. If their tunnel owner is generous, they can make some advances (“bale”) for cigarettes and some subsistence amount to send to their waiting families back home, to be deducted later on from their share. In many tunnels, drinking of hard liquor is not allowed for obvious reasons but of course, a few secret quaffs from a hidden “Tanduay rhum” bottle are expected especially in dealing with chilly nights high up in the mountains. The “abanteros” get a share in certain percentages of the ores taken out of the tunnel. Obviously, ores that do not have value yield nothing and in many cases, the “abanteros” after considerable hard labor eventually quit, go back home or transfer to other tunnels for better luck next time around. Many who left their homes in the lowland just refuse to go back home with empty pockets — unable to live up to the high expectations when they left home, dreaming of a good life upon their return. Many end up staying indefinitely up in the mountains, still hoping and waiting that by some streak of luck, those dreams will still come true.
Gold
So where do they bring the gold? Traders who buy gold operate right there in the area. Others have buying stations in the urban areas in the lowlands. During the early days, the hoodlums and robbers made easy money by just robbing those who would physically carry gold. They were also into “mining” by merely pointing their guns and saying “That’s mine.” A few shifted to using helicopters but again, the ferry service by air stopped because helicopters were easy to notice and sitting ducks when on the ground. The Bangko Sentral was supposed to be the only official buyer but of course stories never die about deliveries to Hong Kong and other foreign destinations.
Elusive dream
During my visit a few days ago in Diwalwal, I saw several persons just loitering idly by the small stores and shacks with tentative curiosity at our passing motorcade maneuvering the narrow and difficult roads that served also as canals during the rain. They appeared to me as if they still continued to dream. My mind then wandered to those thousands still there underground in the tunnels at that precise moment, still slaving themselves as they, too, continued to chase for that elusive dream.
(Next: rationalizing the industry)
