.png){kind=logo}
1 month ago
36
Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!
Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.
Visit Suniway.ph to learn
John Unson - Philstar.com
February 23, 2026 | 7:08pm
The makeshift downstream water flow route that illegal miners in Barangay Tablu in Tampakan, South Cotabato used in separating copper and gold from soil dug from hills around.
Photo courtesy of Philstar.com / John Unson
COTABATO CITY— A multi-sector environment protection team dismantled a clandestine gold and copper mining facility in Barangay Tablu, Tampakan, South Cotabato, on Friday, February 20.
Brig. Gen. Arnold Ardiente, director of Police Regional Office 12, and Major Gen. Alvin Luzon, commander of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, told reporters on Sunday, February 22, that the anti-illegal mining operation involved local executives in Tampakan, personnel from Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI), soldiers from the 39th Infantry Battalion, policemen from units of PRO 12, and officials from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources 12.
Ardiente and officials from DENR 12’s regional office in Koronadal City said on Sunday that the team that raided the illegal mine site in Barangay Tablu immediately seized and destroyed large collapsible hoses, improvised equipment used to separate copper and gold from soil, and more than a dozen shovels and pick mattocks left behind by miners who had escaped. The escaped miners are now the subject of a joint police-military manhunt.
SMI was contracted by the national government to operate, possibly starting in 2028, the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project in Tampakan, with written consent from leaders of the Blaan tribe and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
Experts from the DENR central office, as well as geologists and mining engineers from Europe, have estimated the value of the copper and gold deposits in Blaan ancestral domains in Tampakan at no less than US$200 million.
The multi-sector anti-illegal mining team that conducted operations on Saturday in Barangay Tablu has stopped more than 10 “banlas,” or sluice-style illegal mining operations in Tampakan and nearby Blaan enclaves in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat, since early 2025.
Sluice-style mining is typically carried out near rivers, where miners use handmade strainers to separate soil and minerals with water flowing downstream.
“We in the 10th Infantry Division are ready to help prevent illegal mining in Tampakan via the 39th Infantry Battalion,” Luzon told reporters.
Luzon said the shutdown on Saturday of the riverside illegal mine site in Barangay Tablu was a clear example of what an inter-agency, multi-sector environment-protection campaign can achieve when conducted as a coordinated initiative.
Ardiente expressed gratitude to members of the Blaan tribe who reported the illegal mining operation to officials of the Tampakan Municipal Police Station, the South Cotabato Provincial Police Office, and DENR 12. Their tip enabled the multi-sector team to promptly carry out the closure of the site, which was operated by a group of small-scale miners.
Local executives and South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr., presiding chairperson of the Regional Peace and Order Council 12, covering four provinces and four cities in Central Mindanao, said on Sunday that they appreciate the support of SMI for the government’s anti-illegal mining campaign in Tampakan, despite the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project in the municipality not yet having started.
