Armed illegal miners thrive in Tampakan

GENERAL SANTOS CITY—Illegal small-scale mining operations and loose firearms have proliferated within the controversial multibillion-peso Tampakan project site, Southeast Asia’s largest undeveloped copper-gold minefield, officials said.

Efren Carido, director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau in Soccsksargen (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos), said Tuesday that authorities have uncovered illegal small-scale mining operations at the project site in Tampakan town in South Cotabato province.

The Tampakan mining project is being developed by Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI), a domestic corporation, for $5.9 billion (roughly P323.9 billion) within a 23,000-hectare area estimated to have a deposit of about 15 million tons of copper and 17.6 million tons of gold.

“There is a resurgence of illegal small-scale mining operations in the tenement of SMI. These include sluice and tunnel mining for gold deposits,” Carido told the Inquirer.

Some of the illegal mining sites in Sitio Acacia of Barangay Danlag and Sitio Aspak of Barangay Tablu in Tampakan yielded ball mill machines, an indication that these illegal miners intended to be in these sites for the long haul, Carido added.

He said that three raids conducted by a multipartite team last month led to the confiscation of equipment used in illegal mining operations, including flexible plastic pipe, collapsible hose, sledgehammer, shovel, plastic pail, cut nets and screens, among others.

About 3 ha of the mountain have been destroyed by sluice mining, also known as “banlas” mining, considered a highly destructive mining method because it involves pouring large amounts of water using high-pressure water jets on a mountain’s surface to extract the rocks containing the gold ore, and then pan them with mercury.

Banlas operations were first uncovered in the gold-rush town of T’boli, South Cotabato, in the early 2000s.

Isolated areas

Carido said they already informed SMI about the resurgence of illegal mining in its tenement, where copper rather than gold made up the bulk of the deposits.

The mining firm is mainly responsible to protect its tenement from illegal mining activities, he added.

Ores containing copper were strewn all over the illegal mining sites, because the illegal miners were after the gold ores, Carido said.

He said that the sites where illegal mining thrived were far from populated communities. “Before we could even reach the place, the illegal miners would know we are coming through their informants who alert them using text messages or calls,” Carido said.

He said the small-scale illegal mining operations have gone beyond the Tampakan project tenement and have reached the town of Columbio, Sultan Kudarat.

Warning shots

Siegfred Flaviano, chief of the South Cotabato Provincial Environment Management Office, said he already reported the presence of armed men allegedly involved in illegal mining within the Tampakan project during a meeting of the Provincial Peace and Order Council last month.“(We can hear) warning shots every time we conduct monitoring and surveillance in the area,” he said in a statement.

At least two sources from communities within SMI’s mining tenement separately confirmed the resurgence of illegal mining activities as well as the presence of loose high-powered firearms in the area.

Requesting anonymity for security reasons, they revealed the firearms were bought allegedly using money from the illegal small-scale mining operations or from the payment of the lands they leased to the mining company, which pays P160,000 per hectare for 25 years, or P6,400 annually.

Flaviano said they learned of the identity of the supposed financier, whom he declined to name, from the suspect they arrested during one of the raids.

The Tampakan project has yet to start commercial operations since it was officially launched in the town on Jan. 17, 2003. The firm is reportedly eyeing to commence full swing operations in 2026.

It has been facing staunch opposition from the local Catholic church and allied organizations on concerns over the environment, food security, health and human rights.

In a study, SMI said that the Tampakan project could yield an average of 375,000 metric tons of copper and 360,000 ounces of gold per year in the expected 17-year life of the mine.

The company eyed open-pit mining as the most viable method to extract the deposits of the large-scale mining project but South Cotabato had banned open-pit mining since 2010.

However, in a ruling known only last month, the Court of Appeals (CA) said that the provincial open-pit mining ban applied only to small-scale mining operations and did not cover large-scale mining operations, including the Tampakan project.

South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo, Jr., following a meeting with Diocese of Marbel Bishop Cerilo Casicas, had vowed to appeal the CA decision. The diocese has been spearheading the campaign to stop the open-pit mining project of SMI. INQ

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