ITOGON, Benguet – The Benguet Federation of Small-Scale Miners wants the government to fastrack the approval of the establishment of a Minahang Bayan site in the province the soonest so that pocket miners can directly benefit from the existence and upcoming operation of a non-toxic extraction of minerals processing plant in the locality.
Engr. Lomino Caniteng, BFSSM president, said the multi-million non-toxic processing plant will be useless if the concerned government agencies will not grant their application for the possible declaration of 12 sites in Itogon and Tuba as the sites of Minahang Bayan for the over 20,000 small-scale miners relying on the conduct of pocket mining activities to sustain the livelihood of their families.
In her earlier visit to this municipality several months ago, embattled Environment Secretary Regina Lopez assured thousands of small-scale miners who attended a program that Itogon is one of the potential sites for the establishment of a Minahang Bayan site where thousands of pocket miners could benefit from.
Last month, Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato de la Pena, turned over to the association the newly-constructed gold and copper processing facility which is reportedly non-mercury, non-cyanide and non-toxic and beneficial in preserving and protecting the state of the environment in the area.
The DOST spent a total of P40 million for the put up of the said facility which is aimed at improving the quality of gold and copper that will be extracted from the ore to as much as 85 to 90 percent, a far cry from the existing 50 percent recovery of minerals from the ore.
According to him, the operation of the plant will help address the alleged use of cyanide in the extraction of minerals from the ore which is still being patronized by some groups of small-scale miners considering that the use of mercury among their ranks was already addressed by their signing a commitment with an international organization, Ban Toxic, that allowed the use of mercury in the extraction of minerals over the past fifteen years.
Caniteng said that it will again take some time for pocket miners to abandon the use of cyanide in the extraction of minerals from the ore because of the existence of the non-toxic processing plant established for such purpose, thus, the need for government to fully operationalize the plant to be used by the miners in the extraction of minerals from their recovered ore in the mineral-rich areas of the locality.
Caniteng said pocket miners will surely patronize the use of the non-toxic processing plant once they will find out that there will be a greater chances for them to recover bigger volume of minerals from the ore being brought to the plant but government must make sure that the increasing number of pocket miners will have sufficient source of ore through the establishment of the much awaited Minahang Bayan.
The federation is pushing for the declaration of ten Minahang Bayan sites in Itogon and two possible Minahang Bayan sites in nearby Tuba, two of the mineral-rich towns in the province to jumpstart the robust growth of the small-scale mining industry in the whole province.
By HENT
