Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Chapter 1.1: Overview of Impacts of Extractive Industries on Indigenous Peoples
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Artisanal Mining
Although much of this section has concerned itself with the problematic
relationship between large-scale extractive projects and indigenous
peoples, it should also be noted that mining can be a significant
traditional economic activity in some indigenous territories. In these cases
indigenous peoples have developed their own artisanal or small-scale
mining activities. Such mining is a feasible and sustainable alternative if
given the right conditions and incentives. The range of minerals mined
by artisan miners is diverse, including gemstones, gold, copper, cobalt,
coltan, coal, and other industrial minerals. The World Bank report on
artisanal mining provides the urgency to look into this practice as an
alternative to large-scale, corporate mining. 56 This study found that
artisanal and small-scale mining is practiced in about 50 countries by
people who live in the poorest and most remote rural areas, with few
employment alternatives. At least 20 million people are engaged in
artisanal and small-scale mining and a further 100 million people depend
on it for their livelihood; as many as 650,000 women in 12 of the world’s
poorest countries are engaged in artisanal mining. 57
In Benguet, Philippines, there is a long history of traditional gold mining
by the indigenous Ibaloi people. The distribution of the mining rights is
carefully socially controlled and surrounded with ritual observance and
gold is subject to some community sharing, much to the frustration of
the colonizers who complained the artisanal miners “do not even try
to become wealthy, nor do they care to accumulate riches.” Much of
this was displaced by large-scale mining introduced by the US colonial
administration in 1903, and further accelerated when opencast mines
started in the late 1980s. These mines removed the gold that had been
worked for generation, but also destroyed the fields and farms worked by
local women farmers, and desecrated graves. After seven years of openpit
operations, the company permanently closed the site dismissing all
workers, except for a few caretakers and security personnel. 58