There is a very risky method of underwater gold mining in the Philippines. The nature of the dangerous work has raised concerns over the lack of labour regulations and the safety of the child workers.
The people of the coastal province of Camarines Norte, which is about 200 miles southeast of Manila, are practicing an underwater mining technique called “compressor mining.” It involves teams of miners who dig holes in shallow bay water to dig and sift for deposits of gold trapped in ore. One team member is the digger and spends two to three hours at a time below the surface of the murky water, handing buckets of mud up to another team member.
The buckets are then passed back to the final members who mix in mercury so that the gold will bind to it. Once they’ve maximized the gold-to-mercury ratio in the mixture, they squeeze it out so that it solidifies into an amalgam lump. The final step is to take a blowtorch to the lump so that the mercury evaporates, leaving gold to be collected.
The technique is called compressor mining because the worker under water breathes through a tube connected to a makeshift compressor. The compressor is often fashioned out of an empty beer keg and connected to a diesel motor that pumps air through the tube.
The technique poses severe health and safety risks. The holes dug by the miners are unstable and any wrong move could cause a collapse, trapping the worker. Spending long hours in the water exposes entire teams to bacteria and parasites as well. There is also the issue of toxins entering the lungs regularly through breathing tubes and mercury fumes poisoning those extracting gold.
There are a few thousand people involved in the operation. Many of the teams are comprised of families with children as young as 5 years old. Since underwater miners make more money, 12 and 13-year-old boys and girls are attracted to the position in hopes of raising money to safeguard their future and their family’s future.
The divers disappear into the water as opaque as chocolate milk as they blindly dig in search of gold trapped in muddy sediment. It’s risky business: As miners go deeper, underwater tunnels could collapse or the compressor that provides air may fail.
Descending as deep as 40 feet, the child breathes from a small diesel- powered air compressor on the surface, while blindly digging into the sides of a narrow tunnel. For hours at a time, he fills bags with mud and rock that a partner hauls to the surface, where the sediment is broken down and, using mercury, pans for gold.
Compressor mining outlawed
So-called compressor mining originated in this region of the Philippines as far back as the mid-1990s. The practice was inspired by fishermen, who used the motors to dive deep underwater to catch reef fish. But with the potential for engine breakdowns and tunnel collapses, it’s an extremely dangerous venture, and one not limited to adults.
In 2012, the Philippines was the 18th largest supplier of gold in the world. The retrieval of gold from deposits is dangerous work. Workers have very little choice when they need to provide for themselves and their families. These Filipino gold miners only make $5 average per day, up to $20 on a good day, and sometimes go home with nothing.
Compressor mining was officially outlawed in the Philippines in 2012. In January of that year, near the town of Paracale, an accident left at least three compressor miners dead. The site was shut down and quickly abandoned.
Yet, with vast stretches of poor rural communities spread across some 7,100 islands, desperation is high and regulation is lacking. The record typhoon caused billions of dollars of damage to the country. But it only stopped operations for one day in Mambulao Bay, where more than 400 work on some 40 floating bamboo encampments near the village of Santa Milagrosa.
There’s no way to track the supply of gold coming out of the Camarines Norte area; once it enters the world gold supply, it is impossible to trace.