Decibel Eslava (ELP 2022) | Professor/Dean, University of the Philippines Los Banos, School of Environmental Science and Management, Myanmar

I am about to shoot my own foot, and many may start to question my intentions, but someone has to say it: Those who are against mining are either hypocrites or ignorant. 

Minerals and metals are crucial materials in the global economy and in the development of any nation. Even in our desire to go greener in terms of energy production, transportation, and carbon-neutrality, energy transition metals are important components in the manufacturing of batteries that are necessary in the greening process (Vidal et al. 2013; Koning et al. 2018; Lèbre et al. 2020). Infrastructural projects aimed at serving the poorest of the poor, the farthest farms to market access, to the most remote of villages and communities, require steel, cement, and aggregates for construction. During times of war and other societal disturbances, precious and base metals serve as insurance currencies, even for entire national economies (e.g. Meinert et al. 2016; Fraser et al. 2021; Mining Journal 2021). This is especially true for gold (e.g. Aftab et al. 2019; Salisu et al. 2021; Yousaf et al. 2021). And get this: Nearly everything that is considered essential to modern living has some amount of mined materials in them (Herrington 2013; Tilton et al. 2018). 

There are obviously problems in the development and production activities associated with the mining industry. Historically, extractive practices have produced long-lasting impacts on different aspects of the environment, including sociocultural components. Over-exploitation, extraction from areas reserved for protection, the use of and abuse of women and children, conflicts with indigenous communities, the absence of social license to operate, and losses in biodiversity and immeasurable pollution are just but a few of the evils borne out of mining (e.g. Conde 2017; Cesar 2019; World Bank 2019). 

These problems are very real in the Philippines. In response, the national government has taken numerous steps to curb this pattern of destruction. In particular, three important pieces of legislation have been promulgated to this end: 1) Republic Act No. 7076 (Small Scale Mining Act of 1991), which outlines how small-scale mining contractors should extract, process, and sell their mined ores for commercial purposes, highlighting safety, health, and environmental considerations; 2) Republic Act No. 7942 (Philippine Mining Act of 1995) which laid down the rules and regulations on how mining rights can be secured by companies and the different mineral agreements available; and, 3) Republic Act No. 8371 (The Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997) which aims to protect and promote the rights of indigenous peoples and cultural communities to their ancestral domains, where many of the country’s mineral resources are also located. 

Despite the mining industry’s potential to contribute to the country’s growth, numerous problems plague the industry, as is common for many extractive industries. One of the more difficult of these problems have to do with the fact that in the Philippines, in one watershed alone, all scales of mining activities can be found: a) large scale: dominated by large multinational and national corporations, b) small-scale: usually financed by local business people who are also players in the local government sector, and c) artisanal: mostly done by local community members who are also indigenous peoples. In most cases, large scale operations are sufficiently covered by stringent national laws to ensure strict environmental compliance. In contrast, small-scale operations are more difficult to monitor, and have been shown by several studies to produce more negative environmental impacts, albeit at smaller scales when assessed individually. Collectively, however, data on the total environmental costs of small-scale operations is lacking. 

Our initial survey shows that tailings from small-scale operations are not contained in tailings ponds, as required by law, but are immediately thrown out into streams and rivers. There are two very important and unfortunate issues regarding this practice: 1) the tailings from small-scale operations still contain very high concentrations of metals, particularly copper, gold, and silver. Hence, merely dumping the materials after extraction of free gold is tantamount to dumping the nation’s patrimony in terms of those non-renewable metal resources. 2) In the process, the discarded processed materials pollute the waterways and surrounding grounds as well. Hence, environmental degradation in the form of heavy metal pollution has become rampant, but difficult to address because of a number of factors, including the lack of mechanisms for monitoring, local politics, and the misconstrued essence of the Indigenous People’s Rights Law. 

Large-scale corporations have misgivings on engaging SSM (small-scale mining), and this is rooted to a long history of distrust between the different industry players. Apart from this, there is a question on the economies of scale: large operations need regular volumes of feed materials to their mills to make operations profitable. The SSM industry is very erratic in its production and grade. They also hardly see large operators as potential partners. Again, this is deeply rooted in the histories of the mining operations in the country, where the SSM feel that their ancestral lands have been given away by the government to large operators, and only marginal areas are left to them. In this case, mediation and negotiations need to be strengthened to elevate their relationships to a more synergistic nature.

The national government must see addressing the SSM tailings issue as an opportunity to save national patrimony and an opportunity to protect the environment better. The Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources understands this and partnering with them in crafting frameworks that could be used to better address the issues is a first step. The lack of a national framework for the management of mined catchments has already led to serious resource management issues and concerns (e.g. environmental degradation, water insecurity, impacts on land productivity and tenure, poverty, losses in national patrimony, etc.). The poor implementation, enforcement, and monitoring of existing environmental and mining laws, regulations and policies at the local and national levels have exacerbated the current situation. With this, a national mining catchment management plan/framework that will consider existing gaps and challenges should be established.