|
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Santos: Gold mines at Curuan
By Lino Santos
IT WAS only after reports that rice fields in Curuan are being poisoned by mercury that our officials took notice that mining has been going on there for the past several years. It is only now that we talk about taxing the miners there.
Actually, Curuan, specifically Sitio Mina, is a gold mine in this city. A mining company was actually established there during the American regime. The place is called Mina because Mina is the Chavacano term for mine.
The original owners of the mines at Mina, Curuan were Americans. During the World War II, the Japanese tried to operative the mines but were thwarted by the guerrillas in the place.
After the World War II, the mine was taken over by a Filipino-American corporation that continued to operate the area. The conflict in Mindanao forced the mines to stop operation.
Until 1988 the mining concession passed into the hands of Marcopper Mining (believed to be of the Marcos dynasty). Although Marcopper owns the concession, local residents have invaded the area, particularly the riverbanks of Curuan River at the portion of Sitio Mina and up the river way towards the mountains and what used to be the Western Mindanao Lumber Company or Wemilco
We visited the area sometime in 1988 and noted that farmers have left their farms (it was drought then) to dig for gold along the river and the riverbanks.
Not dozens, or hundreds but thousands of people had encamped along the riverbanks at that time. Even children refused to go to school because they were digging for gold there.
The picture one can have at Mina, Curuan in the 1980s were just like the gold rush in California of early times. The miners used picks and shovels to break up the soil along the riverbanks. The gold is mixed with the soil and even with the gravel at the riverbeds.
We personally saw pure gold nuggets as big as matchboxes that were mined or panned from the ore. The miners used wooden pans to shake the ore mixed with water. Gold being heavy settle down at the wooden pans.
In the late 1980s, the use of sluice gates or wooden made canals to wash the ore was not the practice yet.
We later learned that the enterprising ones dug up tunnels along the riverbanks to get to the sand and gravel ore that was mixed with the gold.
The enterprising ones introduced homemade smelters where the ore is cooked and mixed with mercury to separate the gold from the ore.
Mercury, an indestructible mineral, flows with the water to the rice fields of Curuan and must have caused the rice plants to dry. That was the source of the frightful story printed in local papers that is making our officials jump up the sky.
Is there gold in Curuan, particularly Mina. The big answer is yes. That is why a corporation owns that mining concession that is being operated by individual panners to this day.
In our last visit there, we managed to "steal" a copy of the feasibility study, made by an engineering firm, of the area. In general, the feasibility study said that for every cubic meter of soil, sand or gravel, one could get at least .5 grams of gold.
Incidentally, a note in that "stolen feasibility study," says that the entire Zamboanga Peninsula is so gold saturated to the point that the formula of half a gram of gold for every cubic meter of soil, sand and gravel is the rule.
The city of Zamboanga is one big concession for gold. No wonder the rebels want Zamboanga to be the capital of their promise land.
(June 10, 2003 issue)
Want Sun.Star news on your mobile phone? Click here.
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[ return
to top ]
[ home
]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
|
