DENR won’t impose mining moratorium – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.

By Kristine L. Alave, Vincent Cabreza
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inquirer Northern Luzon

MANILA, Philippines—The director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), an agency under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Tuesday dismissed the call of a Catholic bishop to declare a moratorium on mining in the wake of the Good Friday landslide in Pantukan town, Compostela Valley province.

MGB director Leo Jasareno said stopping all mining activities nationwide was a disproportionate reaction to the landslide that killed at least eight persons in the gold mining community of Panganason in Barangay Kingking. He said the problem was illegal small-scale mining, and not the mining industry in itself.

Jasareno said small-scale mining was vital to the mining industry, being responsible for about 70 percent of the gold mined in the country. (The quarrying of gravel and sand is also done by small-scale miners.)

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