The price for gold: Risking lives for treasure in Philippine small-scale mines
For decades, local residents in Paracale, Philippines, have worked under hazardous conditions—diving into tunnels filled with mud using only makeshift tools to mine for gold, often placing their health and lives at risk.
Ban Toxics, a local NGO working at these sites, claims artisanal mining is a poverty-driven industry and that small-scale miners typically work in harsh conditions with no proper training, protection, or pollution control methods.
Local reports indicate that in 2014, the country produced about 18 tons of gold, at a market value of over $700 million, 80% of which came from artisanal and small-scale mines that operate without a government license.
The Philippines holds the largest copper-gold deposits in the world and is the fifth most mineral-rich country for gold, nickel, copper, and chromite, but massive environmental destruction has prompted the new Department of Environment and Natural Resources secretary to threaten the shuttering of many large-scale mining operations. (Getty)
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