The Children Risking Their Lives In Underwater Gold Mines

[Music] for centuries this part of the Philippines coast has been a fabled source of gold driven by desperate poverty thousands of small-scale miners all along this coast will do anything to find it including risking the lives of their own children gold mining here occurs in remote jungle camps deep in the mud most of it is illegal and everywhere we turn we find children at the heart of this business like 11 year-old Joshua who works on the banks of the sand Isidore Oh Lara River why Nick told you to practice but then were told in the Kohanim ibaka Joshua would prefer to be at school but his dad has to pull him out of class regularly to work together they search for gold in the earth and rocks below the water table [Applause] Joshua has missed so much school that he's now two years behind [Music] here it's common for children to leave school at a young age in order to work but Joshua dreams of a better future than this [Music] by going to work he's helping his father Larry support their family it's a heavy burden for an 11 year old and a situation his father regrets small-scale miners like Larry earn about five hundred pesos a date or $15 if they bring along their children to help they can double that amount [Music] [Music] Joshua lives with his five brothers and sisters in this crowded Shack but it's hoped a place to play and be a kid again [Music] I'm agog like my dog Nana in the Philippines 80% of the population is Roman Catholic large families are common and with many mouths to feed it often falls to the older children to help support their siblings Joshua is the second eldest and he shares this responsibility with his teenage brother wants the best for his children but he's in a tough situation the vicious cycle of poverty forces him to endanger his family a recent accident sent shockwaves through the mining community and Larry himself had a narrow escape [Music] one for me now my doggy Larry was involved in an illegal practice called compressor mining an extremely dangerous method of gold extraction where miners work underwater breathing through thin tubes he says someone used dynamite down a mine shaft causing the deaths of more than 100 people total agony Mulla Mulla person murim nama title ago an emoticon quani goby it's a chilling story but not enough to stop Larry gold-mining nor taking Joshua with him sibel adrenaline prophecy Alana Alana and papa penis subpoenas shell Teledyne epochs are plural and [Music] in this area there are 15,000 small-scale miners like Larry risk-taking is part of their everyday lives and on the weekend they gamble on an age-old bloodsport blades are attached and the [ __ ] fight to the death or until one is too injured to carry on [Music] [Applause] [Applause] here locals gamble with their meager earnings for one of the winners his gamble paid off what do you do for a job what's your job drove out gold-mining so how much did you win today oh good that's good money Philippine money three thousand pesos and how long would it take you to make that money from gold mining one week that's about $85 with his winnings he can avoid a few days digging in the mud the losers have no choice but to return to work as the crowd disperses injured roosters are patched up ready to fight another day throughout this region entire villages rely on gold mining it's known as the gold coast [Music] Nelson Maria has six children including two week old Nathaniel once Nelson was lucky enough to find one big haul worth about $1,000 he runs a compressor mining operation the same underwater method that nearly killed Larry it's not used anywhere else in the world and every day his wife Christine worries if her husband will come home safely [Music] [Music] [Music] to reach Nelson's site we travel upriver [Music] we arrive at a makeshift rig made of bamboo and palm leaves and meet one of the young miners [Music] Jerald is just a teenager but every day that he goes to work he risks drowning Jerald takes a thin hose and clenches it in his teeth this is his lifeline he then lowers himself thirty feet below the surface to dig for gold in the dark [Applause] one kink in the tube or a blockage from mud and he won't be able to breathe children are often used as their lungs have not yet been damaged by the fumes that get sucked into the tubes although Nelson has been doing this for two years even he finds it difficult because compressor mining is illegal no one knows how many men or children have died doing this but out here there's no sign of enforcement to increase their chances of finding gold Nelson and Gerald stay deep underwater for long periods of time today they've been digging at the bottom for three hours I mean the rocks they chiseled out of the cavern are then scoured for anything containing even the tiniest speck of gold no more this time the risk was for nothing so Gerald must go back down the shaft to search again for gold much do you get paid in one day [Music] some popping octopus in samples [Music] [Music] local mayor ricotta padilha insists that shutting down compressor mining would only force families further into poverty and who's responsible for trying to stop children being on these sites is there a national police official now when it is our office but of course as I have said we are doing the best we can if I could only give them opportunities job opportunities I will take them away from especially from compressor mining it is just that you know I have no alternative at this point why is that what would happen to the interviews if you went up there tomorrow and stop them doing compressor mining what would happen to those people well of course they will go back to you and ask can you feed us can you sustain our families can you sustain our children who are going going to the school every day this is the only way we get our source of income I mean it's a situation where damned if you do and damned if you don't in the village of San Isadora oh I meet Mark Antony he's carrying water home so his younger sister can cook children here have little time for playing Mark Antony spends much of his time digging in the nearby soil pits looking for tiny specks of gold he works alongside his father Marcus that was so Cannella and you don't know about that no others I knew you thought about Putin negotiate for Kobe good boy Mark Antony is managing some school and wants to be a police officer when he grows up he hopes he won't have to leave school permanently to work I wish his father shares for the sake of his future and his safety [Music] Nobunaga together they fill their sacks with soil then transport them to the mill at the mill they go through the soil panning for specks of gold their eyes are trained to find gold fragments as tiny as grains of sand whatever they find must then be processed into one solid piece and to do this Marcos is taking a huge risk he uses mercury to bind the specks of gold together the use of mercury is banned unfortunately Marcos is exposing his son and himself to a poisonous metal which can cause brain and organ damage especially in children he then burns off the mercury creating a toxic vapor it's the only way they can get it ready to be sold the gold they produce comes at a high personal price which is why it's being tagged as dirty gold again my personal position I mean the public over I do not mean my diamond kind of guitar now it's due to chaos that will reposition my mom Anka Rama Navami beginning of Apple are in the legacy of a gig in tow [Music] today mark ourselves to the local gold broker and mill owner and Delia a day for a person or persons equivalent or / interpersonally Marco's has to share the earnings with the other men at the dig site is that enough how long will that keep your family going I said in there long Marco's has made just $13 and for now he's putting on a brave front Adelia says she would like to pay more but claims that price she can pay is set by bigger brokers further up the buying chain because you're the man who pick up the air God so paid too much yeah there's about a 50% markup between what the local gold miners are paid here and the International gold price now it's unrealistic for them to expect to get all that money but all the miners tell us that if they could get just a fraction of that profit then they wouldn't have to have their children work with them [Music] along the Philippine so-called Gold Coast small-scale miners are among the country's 25 million workers living in poverty the local mayor knows the root of the problem lies in the distribution of wealth our problem is very much anchored in poverty but ironically history will tell that a new SEPA honeyBun can produce as much as 60 to 80 kilos and gold every month but where does this wealth go you will see gold going to the black market so when it goes to the black market where does a thing go go to Hong Kong go to China really yes much of the goal produced here is sold on the black market to avoid taxes and while the miners failed to get a fair price they'll continue needing their children to work there seems to be a lot of children working on these sites while more and more people are getting poor because of the imbalance in the mining industry more in more people they're losing the capacity percent of children to school we cannot put all the responsibilities and obligations to the government it has to be between the parents and the government you have to be prepared to give a solid future for your children [Music] but some parents have little choice even with his son's help Marco's can still barely afford to feed his family of five let alone send him to school I hope our linear model Mozilla proposed tighten her up now Ranas in Kosovo [Music] did I I don't know me [Music]

Channel: Journeyman Pictures

Views: 4,906,290

Rating: 4.7954822 out of 5

Keywords: Child labour, Philippines (Country), Gold (Chemical Element), Exploitation (Film Subject), Education (TV Genre), Reportage, Investigative Journalism (Media Genre), Working Conditions

Id: P1L_pxYZVwE

Length: 23min 44sec (1424 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 24 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/mpstar]

you wonder how many children lose their life and we will never know,so sad a government allow that,they should have theses families, just think if the generator goes off,,their lungs would explode

[u/KukurikapuSaKilikili]

Incoming free scholarship

[u/dievraag]

Does any remember the movie Moro Ami starring Cesar Montano?

This really reminded me of that. Same mechanics, different product.

Sad to know that similar practices still exist. That movie came out when I was in elementary, one of those things that made me begin to realize that there are people who will never have the same quality of life that I enjoy.