Police seize the dump trucks loaded with ores at the new gold rush site in Opol, Misamis Oriental on Friday, 18 October 2024. Photo by Opol Municipal Police Station
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 19 October) – Police arrested 10 mine workers allegedly caught extracting gold illegally in a new gold rush site in Opol town, Misamis Oriental before dawn Friday, October 18.
Opol town police investigator Rodel Suaybaquio said that authorities confiscated two dump trucks, eight motorcycles and 300 sacks of gold ore worth P6.7 million during the operation.
Suaybaguio said the raid was conducted by a joint police team from Opol and Manticao towns, acting on information relayed by barangay residents.
He said the new gold rush area is located in Barangay Limonda, a remote village in Opol town reachable only via a rough road in Manticao town.
“We left Opol around 1 a.m. on Friday and went to Manticao. We reached Barangay Limonda around 4 a.m. Three hours of rough riding,” Suaybaguio said.
Suaybaguio said they caught the illegal miners in the act of transporting the sacks of ore towards clandestine ball mill machines operating in Manticao town.
He said the miners used motorcycles in transporting the sacks of gold ores to waiting dump trucks.
A resident, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said Barangay Limonda is a new gold rush site, and that several farmers have joined the miners in extracting ores from the Iponan River.
“Even children are now used by their parents to mine for gold. Many children have stopped going to school to join their parents,” he said.
In 2013, a Writ of Kalikasan was issued to protect Iponan River. It mandated various government agencies to join the protection of the fragile ecosystem. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
