Introduction
Although copper is one of the most common metals on Earth, its supply and demand has increased majorly in the past 25 years due its usefulness in a wide range of areasq (geology.com, 2014). Due to this, the Philippines, which contains a significant amount of copper deposits, has been increasing its supplies and exports of copper to the rest the world, shown in the value of Philippines copper mining and production rising from 8.97 billion Pesos in 2010 to 9.74 billion in 2011 (industry.gov.ph, n.d.). However, multiple mining operations in the Philippines have not spent the money to take suitable safety precautions, such as in the 1996 Marcopper Mining Disaster (Rappler, 2017). This raises the question: should copper mining continue in the Philippines?
Findings
Copper has a vast many areas it can be used in that cause its demand to increase each year. Bell reporting for The Balance states that copper’s most common and perhaps most relevant use is its electrical capability, which is up to 65% of what it is used for. Copper is the most electrically conductive metal, second only the silver, and also easily works even with multiple power networks (The Balance, 2016). These properties make it a perfect candidate to utilise in the manufacturing of electrical generation and transmission, such as wires and transformers (geology.com, 2014). Due to its malleability while maintaining its strength, as well as its strong resistance against corrosion, it is also used frequently in construction, especially in heating systems and plumbing (The Balance, 2016). While in the future carbon nanotubes could rival copper in all of its electrical uses, at the moment, there are no other materials that could replace copper, rising its demand significantly (Assembly, 2016).
As a result, copper mining has increased in the Philippines in recent years, as they have taken advantage of their high supply of copper and, according to the Philippines government, they only plan on expanding in the future. The value of their copper mining continues ascending, and due to this, more Filipinos are given jobs, 7300 recently employed due to the industry (industry.gov.ph, n.d.). In 2011 alone, the Philippines gained 9.74 billion Pesos from their copper mining and production, showing their economy can only grow from investing in this mining (industry.gov.ph, n.d.).
The problem of the Philippines’ copper mining does not lie in the amount of mining, but rather the lack of safety precautions taken in their mining over the past 20 years (Rappler, 2008). In 24th of March 1996, the Marcopper Mining Disaster took place, and it had a devastating effect on multiple rural Filipino villages and waterways (Rappler, 2016). According to the Rappler, Marcopper had been in operation since the late 60s, dumping their mine tailings into nearby river. However, it was only in the 90s that the government had taken heed of the complaints of the Filipinos and ordered them to find another way of disposing of their waste or stop operations (Rappler, 2016). In response, Marcopper began to dump the waste into their old mine site, sealing off the old tunnels that led to streams of water that they claimed were used to “bring water into the pit” (Rappler, 2016). Over time, however, the pressure of the waste and the effects of a minor earthquake caused the 2-3 billion cubic metres of mine tailings to gush out of the sealed tunnel into the Boac river among others (Rappler, 2016). This completely contaminated the rivers, the village peoples’ livelihood as they depended completely on fishing and agriculture, and also caused flash floods on the villages that were located on the riverbanks (Rappler, 2016). 20 of the 60 villages alone the riverbanks had to be evacuated, and later the Boac River was officially declared dead (Rappler, 2016). This was all due to the fact that the design of the mine pit had “fundamental flaws” caused by a lack of budget (Rappler, 2016).
Although Rappler states that the government thereafter declared that it would only allow mining if deemed “responsible mining”, the times had not changed for two decades (Rappler, 2008). In 1999, a major accident occurred in Cebu with even more drastic effects than that of Marcopper, discolouring the ocean even 2 kilometres out (Rappler, 2008). Later in 2005, a disaster of similar proportions occurred in a copper among other metals mine on Rapu-Rapu Island, showing that after nine years the government still had not enforced proper mining procedures and precautions, in addition to lacking a monitoring of these mines (Rappler, 2017). As of 2008, ten of the 24 mining companies running “high-priority” operation were previously responsible for accidents and had even been investigated for pollution crimes, or had notices of violations against them from the Pollution Adjudication Board (Rappler, 2008).
However, with the rise of the most recent president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, environmentally friendly changes are being made to the face of Filipino mining (Reuters, 2016). Claiming that mining only accounts for 1% of the Filipino economy, he stated that the Philippines would survive without it (Reuters, 2016). In the past month, he closed down 23 mines that posed risk of ruining watersheds, and also cancelled 75 mining contracts for the future, one of which being a gold-copper mine worth $1.2 billion USD (inquirer.net, 2017). However well this is for the environment, this also puts miners out of work, affecting 1.2 million Filipinos, and causes a major loss of mining revenue, “something like 70 billion Pesos a year” (inquirer.net, 2017).
Conclusion
So, is copper mining really worth continuing in the Philippines? Continuing with the mining offers both social and economic benefits on the country, providing for 1.2 million Filipinos and bringing 70 billion Pesos to the economy each year, while ending it would lead to a definite end to environmental disaster (inquirer.net, 2008). However, could this not be done simply with safety precautions put in place and careful monitoring in mines instead? I believe that closing down mining altogether would have too much of a negative impact on the people of the Philippines to even consider