Standoff In Balabag As Large And Small-Scale Miners Fight For Rights Over Gold-Rich Area

“They (PMRB) should act now or else it will be bloody,” Mayor Leonardo Babasa told MindaNews late Friday afternoon, about an hour after members of the Monte de Oro Small-Scale Mining Association (Mossma) who staged a rally at the junction in  Sitio Balabag, Barangay Depore, attempted to remove the barricade at the Inter-Agency (IA) checkpoint here to allow trucks bearing diesel fuel to proceed to the minesite. The fuel is needed to run their rod mills and cyanidation plants.....
(Mayor Babasa told MindaNews Sunday evening that the town’s Crisis Management Committee met earlier that morning and passed a resolution asking TVI to maintain the status quo by allowing the entry of diesel fuel in the minesite. He said TVI can bar the entry of illegal materials such as cyanide but diesel fuel should be allowed in pending the PMRB’s resolution on the mining rights issue. He also said they asked Mossma members for sobriety. No rally was held on Sunday).
http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2012/04/15/standoff-in-balabag-as-large-and-small-scale-miners-fight-for-rights-over-gold-rich-area/