CDCP, or construction development corporation of the philippines, was a government owned and controlled corporation established during the administration of the late president ferdinand marcos. it entered basay, negros oriental in the 70s and setup a huge mining operation consisting of 3 open pit mines to extract copper, molybdenum, gold, and silver, among others. it shutdown the mine sometime in the mid 80s, and most of its facilities and equipment (and mine waste) were abandoned.
the mill site was where all the extracted ore was processed before being shipped. this is what's left of the mill site.
in front of the mill site is a river. notice the orange tinge of the water. this is the result of the mine waste and chemicals not properly cleaned up during the shutdown of the mine, and also some small scale mining operations still on-going, some of which are illegal.
if the mill site structures had been left on their own, we would probably still see some remnants of them standing. but the more enterprising residents of the area decided to scavenge what steel or metal they could get and sell them as scrap. sa bisaya pa, gipatimbang na lang para makakwarta sad ug gamay.
but what really amazed me was the lengths some of them had gone (and are still going) to just to scavenge the remaining mill site structures for scrap metal. they actually tore down the walls and chipped at the concrete columns of the mill to get to the supporting steel cables, or kabilya, underneath so they could sell them for scrap.
since most of the steel cables for the walls and columns had already been harvested, this man has even resorted to scavenging the mill's foundations for kabilya.
the man on the right is my host, the pastor of a small and recently established evangelical church in the area, who had invited me a few months earlier to tour his place for pictures. the man on the left is our guide, an ex-CAFGU soldier who was once deployed to guard the mine.
the kabilya miner's tools.
this structure used to be a storage tank for processed ore. even the steel support there was cannibalized for scrap.
these striking rock formations used to be processed ore stored in huge metal tanks. when the mine was shut down, the processed ore was left sitting inside their tanks, and it soon hardened. the metal tanks were eventually taken down and sold as scrap, and the hardened ore inside was left standing.
these structures were probably connected to the storage tanks. they look like the ruins of an ancient fortress of some long gone civilization... or monuments to the insatiable appetites of man...
some funky looking rocks
more views of the rock formations
a kabilya miner
pastor jonathan inspecting the kabilya
this reminds me of those pictures of rock formations found in the arizona desert, or the grand canyon, or something like that. if it were considered a piece of art, it would be a collaboration piece between man and nature. but here, the roles are reversed. man has provided the raw material (the hardened ore), and nature has done the sculpting.
life is hard, but you gotta make a living one way or the other...
the red hill was where the raw ore extracted from the open pit mines were piled up and ready for processing.
when i found the hut, i thought it was just a shed where the kabilya miners took their breaks, but i was wrong. i later discovered that there were people who actually lived there.
their father is one of the kabilya miners. imagine spending your childhood here. the nearest school was almost an hour away by motorcycle via a rocky, dusty, and steep mountain path. i'm not even sure if they go to school. these pictures were taken in january, and the last school we passed by was humming with students.
the remnants of a staircase: an eloquent symbol of this whole enterprise of ambition and ruin
i wonder if the carabaos have tried taking dips in the water. maybe they'll turn into mutant carabaos. with superpowers :D
the funky water here comes from the 2 flooded open pit mines, including waste from the small scale mining operations still on-going...
... and this flows out to a much bigger river which then flows out to the sea.
our ride to the place.
next stop: the open pit mines.
