Illegal gold mining persists in Sarangani town
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 5 February) – Illegal gold mining operations continue to proliferate in the mountains of Kiamba, Sarangani as authorities recently dismantled grinding mill equipment there.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Region 12 (DENR-12), headed by lawyer Felix Alicer, confirmed Thursday the discovery of multiple illegal mineral processing sites across Barangay Nalus in Kiamba.
In a statement, the agency said the joint operation conducted by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau-12 (MGB-12), Sarangani Provincial Police Office, and the Kiamba Municipal Police Station late last month was in line with the efforts to curb unregulated mining in the region.
In Sitio Opal, authorities discovered and dismantled six tumbling or grinding mills. In nearby Sition Banate, two more grinding mills were discovered and another in Sitio Kafugan.
The mountains of Barangay Nalus share borders with Maitum, Sarangani.
Illegal gold mining tunnel operations were known to exist in the borders way back 15 years ago.
Alongside the busted tumbling mills, the team located two heavy-duty diesel engines and an improvised sluice box.
“To ensure that these sites could no longer operate, the team systematically dismantled the [pieces of] machinery [at the] site,” DENR-12 said.
Col. Jerone Orville Panganiban, Sarangani provincial police director, said the separate anti-illegal mining operations were conducted following information from concerned residents.
Panganiban said the raid was conducted through “OPLAN Kapugan” as part of the police’s major internal security operation.
He reported that 32 sacks of illegally extracted ores were seized during the operation.
Other specialized mining tools recovered during the operation included a blowtorch set, a pulley system, settling mats, and headlamps.
The pieces of evidence were turned over to the Sarangani Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office for safekeeping.
However, both the police and the DENR-12 reported no arrests during the operation. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
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