Mining with machines, not by hand.

Much of the gold mining in Camarines Norte is still done by hand, with traditional methods. Our community relies on machines instead. Here is how the two compare.

Traditional mining

Traditional mining in Camarines Norte

Small-scale miners in the province have worked gold for generations. Many still dig narrow tunnels and pits by hand, carry ore out on their backs, and process it with simple tools. Some operations work without permits, and mercury is still used in parts of the region to recover gold.

This way of mining is slow, dangerous for the people doing it, and hard on rivers and land.

Around Paracale, small-scale workings range from shallow shafts to adits fed by compressed air, and some reach about 100 metres deep. In many local operations, gold is still recovered by washing crushed ore in wooden pans called bateas.

Side by side

Traditional mining and our approach

TraditionalOur community
DiggingTraditionalBy hand, with simple toolsOur communityExcavators and machinery
HaulingTraditionalCarried by workersOur communityBy truck
ProcessingTraditionalSimple tools; mercury in some areasOur communityOur plant: jaw crusher, wet pan mill and ball mill, leaching tanks
Legal statusTraditionalOften unpermittedOur communityInside a declared Minahang Bayan
SafetyTraditionalHigh risk to workersOur communityFewer people in danger, safety first
ScaleTraditionalLimitedOur communityEfficient and able to grow

Our approach

Why we rely on machines

We rely on machines rather than manual labour for digging, hauling and processing. That makes our operation faster, safer for workers and easier to scale, while keeping land disturbance to the areas where geological data shows the gold is.

Allan Inocalla gives a thumbs-up in front of a Yanmar mini excavator being unloaded from a truck
EXCAVATORAllan Inocalla with a mini excavator at the site
Workers load bags of ore onto a dump truck, with a red jaw crusher in the foreground
HAULINGOre is hauled by truck to the jaw crusher
A truck-mounted crane lifts a large blue steel part for the processing plant
CRANE TRUCKA crane truck lifts heavy plant equipment into place
A small excavator working a hillside in the Minahang Bayan, with sacks of ore in the foreground
MINAHANG BAYANA small excavator opens ground; sacks of ore wait for haulage to the plant
Rock face inside a tunnel in the Minahang Bayan, showing quartz and altered rock
IN THE TUNNELVein rock and altered wall rock exposed inside one of our tunnels

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