Compressor miners working in the gold fields at Dalas Labo, a village in the provide of Camarines Norte on the island of Luzon…Compressor mining gets it name from the practice of using small gasoline engine compressors to feed air to miners though thin plastic tubes. The miners work in narrow water-filled shafts about a meter in diameter for up to two hours to fill sacks with gold bearing clay. The shafts are up to 40-feet deep, just deep enough for miners to avoid severe decompression problems when they surface. Compressor mining is considered the most dangerous type of mining due to the inherent instability of the pits. If a collapse happens, there is little recourse to reduce the miner…The practice takes physical stamina so small children aren’t used but stronger teenagers sometimes move from the panning areas on the surface to the more dangerous work of compressor mining…Photos show compressor miners surfacing after time in the pits. The miners are in their teens…Other photos show children at work panning and breaking clay not the surface. ..Story Summary:.Small-scale gold mining in the Philippines uses mercury and cyanide to extract elemental gold from ore extracted from mines and pits dug by hand. Very young children, some as young as four, are put to work at less dangerous but still rigorous tasks in the gold mining areas. These include panning in streams or rivers and hauling ore sacks that can weigh up to 60 pounds. Children often play near mechanized equipment and highly toxic mercury and cyanide. These chemicals, used to help extract elemental gold from ore, are leached into nearby watersheds where fish and other marine life, mainstays of the Philippine diet, are poisoned. The high price of gold and the poor economy in many developing countries has led to an increase in small-scale gold mining throughout the world…Story Summary:.Small-scale gold mining in the Philippines uses mercury and cyanide to extract elemental gold from ore extra
A four-year-old girls woks a sluice box at the Panique mining area on Masbate Island.
An estimated 18,000 children work in small-scale mines in the Philippines. The country ranks 18th in gold production worldwide and the steady increase in global gold prices have had a corresponding impact on the number of child laborers.
MANILA, PHILIPPINES – JULY 09: Filipino child laborers work alongside adults in the charcoal dump of Port area district on July 9, 2012 in Manila, Philippines. The use of child labour in the Philippines has been highlighted recently in a report by the International Labor Organisation (ILO), which estimated over 5 million children, or 18.9 per cent of children aged 5-17 are working. (Photo by Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images)
