Mining over a century ago

A.Paulita Roa

I WONDER why mining was not a profitable and sustainable venture in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period as reported by Mr. Frederic Sawyer. He traveled extensively around the country for around 20 years and  saw that in areas of the country where this precious mineral abound, a great number of  people earned their livelihood washing sands in rivers and picking up specks of gold.  He later wrote a book about his experiences and observations, entitled, “The Inhabitants of the Philippines.” This book was published in 1900.

According to his source, the northern parts of the provinces of Surigao and Misamis are the richest in gold. That in Misamis Province, there was both alluvial gold and rich quartz reefs and that the richest known sites are the Pighoulugan on River Cagayan, Iponan and Pigtao. The ore in Pigtao is auriferous iron pyrites that is called by the natives as “inga.” There were nuggets weighing from two and a half to four ounces, so that Pigafetta’s stories about the abundance of gold in this island were all true.

For me, the very interesting part of Sawyer’s book is the short description of gold taken from my hometown Cagayan de Oro, formerly known as Cagayan the Misamis and I quote it in full:

“On March 20th, 1888, a cleak of Don Luis Genu, a merchant in Manila, called upon me on business and exhibited a large picle bottle full of gold which he had just received from Cagayan de Misamis. there were several pounds weight of it, and I carefully examined it with a lens. I found it in pieces, many of them half an inch or more in length, slightly flattened, and having minute particles of white quartz adhering to them, and a few loose particles of quartz. The pieces were not water-worn, and had evidently formed part of a seam of dendritic or lace gold, such as I had seen exhibited by a vendor of mining properties in Denver, Col. (Colorado, USA), just a year before.

“This exhibit opened my eyes to the possibilities of gold mining in Mindanao, but I did not leave my business to go prospecting.” (Sawyer, F. 1900:150).

This is the only time I have come across a description of gold taken from Cagayan and written over a century ago. Since then, there has been no other kind of a write up similar to this one–which is a pity since I have read in 1879 annual report of the Agustinian Recollects that in Cagayan de Misamis 500 taels of gold or an equivalent to 18.750 kilograms,was produced annually from the nearby hills. So there should be more reports and researches about gold and other minerals of Cagayan.

An Englishman named Sir John Bowring,who once served as the Governor of Hongkong,wrote about the state of mining in the country in 1859 during the time of his visit here. He wrote that the mining laws known as the Reglamento de Minas were very liberal. It allows concessions to be made by any person–Spaniard, Indian (Filipino), mestizo or established foreigner who shall discover a mine and report it and undertake to work on it. Colonial officials and the priests were excluded from this privilege; that the work must be entered upon ninety days under certain conditions; that four months of continued suspension, or eight months of interrupted labor, within the year will bring cancellation to this given privilege to the concessionaire. The laws also stated also that there must be at least eight laborers employed in the mine and that the mining area is subject to inspection by the mining department.

Even if the mining laws were not stringent and that there was the widespread knowledge of the abundance of gold and other minerals in the country, still the mining industry during the Spanish colonial period kept on floundering and was not a big success. Sawyer attributed to the failure to the fact that the friars were always against mining.They did not want a rush of foreign miners to the country. However, he was optimistic that with the new American colonial government in the Philippines, the influence of the friars will be no more.

He ended with the hope that the mining claims can be staked and registered under the present laws by Filipinos and foreigners alike but only in certain areas. That placers or river beds can be worked by all and should not be monopolized by an individual or a group. He will not be surprised that with the Philippines in American hands, it will become an important gold producing country.

Sawyer was right, the Americans developed the rich gold mines of the Mountain Province and became known to the world as the Benguet Consolidated Mining and then, there is the Philex Mining and others But he should have seen the monopolization and other injustices that the big ones did to the small miners practically everywhere. Today, we are faced with a different set of problems that is hounding the mining industry in our country–mostly in terms of polluting our environment and the raiding, and torching of mining equipments and many more. This is a far cry from what our miners went through over a century ago.