Brokedown mines

WHEN mines shut down, they don’t just fade away like old soldiers. They fester and fall apart once their owners walk away. That’s what seems to have been happening to the mines that have closed one after the other across the country in the last several decades, for reasons ranging from diminished returns to disasters. And while the government has tried to step in to do some cleanup, it has been having difficulty choosing which mines need help the most.

[Photos courtesy of Tetra Tech EM Inc. ]

The latest piece in i Report‘s series on the Philippine mining industry tracks just how far the government has gotten in its efforts to rehabilitate abandoned mines, as well as the risks posed by some of these mines. It also looks at the reasons why the government seems to be having a hard time dealing with the situation — even opting to redo previous evaluations of idle mines.

Read on at pcij.org.