DAVAO CITY (PNA) – Australia has been chosen as the destination of a benchmarking mission to be undertaken by the mining industry cluster group here, headed by its chairman, George Tagawa, representing small miners in the Davao Region.

Tagawa said the mining industry group will study closely the “best practices in responsible mining” in the gold-rush mining sites in Perth, and Victoria in Australia sometime in March this year to cap their efforts in a region-wide campaign to promote more responsible mining among Davao big miners and small miners.

“There are so many things we can learn from the Australians in mining operations that protect our environment and promote the social and economic interests, especially of our small miners here,” Tagawa said.

Tagawa has presented the mining industry cluster’s progress report to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is running the industry cluster capacity project with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

One of the most prominent advocacy campaigns of the mining industry group is a radio program over dxOW every morning, which promotes responsible mining among all miners in the Davao Region, both big and small mining operators, and urging them to protect the environment as well as pushing for good waste management in mining operations.

“We don’t want to see careless and reckless mining among big miners and small miners here in the Davao gold rush areas that have devastated our rich forest cover and polluted rivers, lakes and seas in this region – we’re going to Australia to see how responsible miners were able to sole this problem,” Tagawa said.

The study mission to Australia is fully funded by JICA under the Davao Industry Cluster Capacity Enhancement Project, a joint project of the DTI and JICA.

Tagawa said the radio program anchored by radio commentator Leo Villareal has been receiving many feedbacks from various sectors, fully supporting their efforts to promote responsible mining in the region.