CAPACUANSMALL SCALEEconomy
Mainly farming, with rice and coconut. Also handcrafted jewellery, metalwork, food processing and woodcraft. In Jose Panganiban and Paracale, small-scale gold mining is a major livelihood.
The Paracale–Jose Panganiban gold district.
One of the oldest gold districts in the Philippines, on the north coast of Camarines Norte, Luzon. This is the province and the ground our community works in.
- 211,249haArea of Camarines Norte
- 12Municipalities in the province
- 273Barangays in the province
- ~3tGold produced a year in the district in the 1980s (est.)
The province
Camarines Norte
Camarines Norte was once part of a single province called Ambos Camarines. It became a province of its own under Act No. 2809, passed by the Philippine Legislature on 3 March 1919. Its capital is Daet.
The province has a Type II climate, with no pronounced dry season and the heaviest rain from November to January. The average temperature is about 27°C; February is the coolest month and May the warmest.
The land is made up of rolling hills and mountains dominated by Mount Labo, an extinct volcano on the border with Camarines Sur, with broad valleys and fertile plains along the Pacific coast.
Economy and access
Economy and infrastructure
Road
Several bus companies run daily air-conditioned trips between Manila and the province along the Maharlika Highway.
Air
A secondary-class airport near Daet takes commercial flights, and there is an airstrip at the former Philippine Iron Mines site in Larap, about 10 km from the project.
Power and telecoms
Power comes from the Camarines Norte Electric Cooperative (CANORECO), with industrial power lines in the project area. Three private networks and government facilities provide telecoms.
Getting there
Getting to the site
From Manila, take the Maharlika Highway to Barangay Talobatib in Labo, turn left towards Jose Panganiban, then left again at Teddy Crossing in Barangay Santa Rosa. The site is about 3 km along a concrete farm-to-market road. Inside the area, roads used by small-scale miners carry ore to crushing and milling plants.
The drive from Manila takes about 7 to 8 hours, depending on traffic. Alternatively, a domestic flight from Manila to Naga is followed by a drive north through Daet, which takes about 4 to 6 hours in total. The project lies about 200 km east-southeast of Manila, in Barangays Capacuan (Paracale) and San Rafael (Jose Panganiban).
Climate
Climate
The area has a tropical climate, with about 3,350 mm of rain a year. It is wettest from October to January and drier from March to June. Temperatures stay between about 22 and 33 °C all year. The province lies in the Philippine typhoon belt, but work can generally carry on throughout the year.
Land and water
Land and drainage
The district has two physiographic regions. In the eastern region, 300 to 500 metres of the old mineralised land surface has been eroded away, according to a UNDP report, which explains the widespread alluvial gold in the area.
The project area no longer has its original forest. It is planted with coconut and root crops, and low-lying ground is used for rice. Streams drain west into Mambulao Bay.
Regional geology
The geology of the district
The district lies near the northern end of the Philippine island arc, a belt of young, mostly andesitic volcanoes along the Philippine Trench. The Philippine Fault, a major northwest-trending fault, runs about 70 km west of the district.
The oldest rocks are the pre-Cretaceous Paracale Granodiorite and Cretaceous amphibolite and ultramafic rock. The most important unit for mining is the Universal Formation: its upper part of calcareous shale, marl and limestone hosted most of the district’s ore deposits, apart from the gold veins in the granodiorite.
Above it lie the Larap Volcanics. The boundary between the two formed the main channels for hot, mineral-bearing fluids, and folding and faulting led those fluids to places where gold, iron and base metals were deposited. The formation of Mount Labo in the Quaternary closed the geological history of the district.
Mining today
Mining in the district today
Many unlicensed miners, known locally as “high-graders”, work the Jose Panganiban–Paracale area. Most are transient and move on once a spot no longer pays. This is the setting in which a licensed Minahang Bayan makes a difference.
Insurgency incidents in the province are now isolated and have declined, and most reported cases are in mountainous areas near the provincial borders. The Inocalla family has not been affected since it began small-scale mining and milling, and keeps close ties with barangay residents and local communities.
Geological and district information on this page is summarised from an independent report by geologists Manuel G. Acenas and Dodie Vargas, prepared for Paracale Gold Corp. (September 2026). That report states that it is not compliant with NI 43-101 or JORC, so no current mineral resources or reserves are stated on this site; historical estimates are shown for reference only.
Gold mining investment · Philippines
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