GOLD FEVER. Aside from hydraulic miners, hundreds of panners like Teles Mabunay, 56, look for gold in the heavily-silted Iponan River in Cagayan de Oro City on Feb.

28, 2012. Mabunay said he earns P350 a day panning for gold, a backbreaking job, from 6am to 4pm.

He said he is alarmed by the presence of mercury, a sample of which he showed to journalists.

MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo