Since Placer Dome left the Philippines the abandoned Sand Antonio Pit has gradually filled with rainwater. The San Antonio Pit now contains millions of tons of water, which has mixed with mine waste and other toxic chemicals, being held back by failing dams. According to a leaked document from Placer Dome's own environmental consultants, "failure of the dam is a virtual certainty in the near term".

The small island of Marinduque is located within a typhoon belt. Every time it rains, the pressure on the failing dam increases, making the collapse a question of when not if.

The mounting pressure being applied to the failing dam puts over 100,000 villagers below in grave danger, but there is nothing they can do.

When the dam does eventually collapse, much of the surrounding villages will be inundated by flash floods with the contents of the San Antonio Pit which contains dangerous toxic chemicals.

When asked about what can be done about the situation, one common response was "all we can do is sit and wait for the next disaster."

When the first dam collapsed in 1993, the flash flood of toxic waste swept away Thomas' treasured cow and he nearly drowned. With the San Antonio Pit now on the verge of collapse, Thomas knows that his home will be one of the first ones swept under by the coming flash floods, but he has nowhere else go. With his already deteriorating health, he stands little chance of surviving.

“Look, that dam could break at any time, maybe next week, maybe tomorrow, I don’t know. But I do know that when it does happen, my house and my family will probably be destroyed. And just like last time, the company will blame it on an ‘Act of God.’ I want that picture to exist, so that people can know what happened. For that, I would be willing to sacrifice myself.” With those words a brave Marinduqueño snuck a photographer in the back of a truck into Placer Dome’s old copper mine, successfully evading the armed guards still protecting the property. Here he stands in front of the San Antonio Pit, containing the millions of tons of mine waste which will eventually come crashing down on his home. His bravery and determination to put himself in harms way for the sake of this documentation is a stronger testament to the anxiety Marinduqueños have to live with than any picture can offer.

mining&water

The province of Benguet, in the northern Philippines, is famous for its beautiful rice terraces along the mountainside.

Rice is of vital importance to the economic, political, and social stability of the Philippines. We eat rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, rice for dinner, and use rice to make many of our deserts.

A few meters from her home, Trixie looks down at the tailings dam for the Victoria Gold Mine, where the waste from the mining process is dumped.

Here is a closer look at the tailings dam where waste from the mining process is dumped at a rate ranging between 1,500 and 2,500 metric tons per day.

A close up look at the surface of the tailings dam. Some of the waste dumped here includes dangerous toxic chemicals such as lead, cyanide, and mercury.

Not all of the waste is toxic. There is also a significan amount of waste rock as well as industrial waste which can be found in and around the tailings dam.

On the right of this photo is the actual dam itself. This is the physical structure which is supposed to hold back the millions of tons of waste from spilling out into the nearby river systems. But this is the third dam built here after the previous two collapsed.

This is the same dam seen from the opposite side. This particular dam has been completely inadequate against the torrential downpour during the yearly rainy season and is especially vulnerable to earthquakes as Benguet is directly above a fault line. For years the chemicals have been leaking out into the nearby river systems.

This is from the same photo above, zoomed in to show a trickle of water flowing out of the dam.

Just a few meters past the dam, contaminated water (left) - carrying with it cyanide, lead, copper, and mercury - joins together with the clean water (right) coming from the mountain springs into the river system.

Here you can see some healthy rice fields along the left side of the river. These fields get their irrigation from the mountain springs behind them. Everything on the other side of the river used to be rice fields as well, but the rice does not grow there anymore because of the toxic chemicals that have entered the river system. You can see that the farmers have built a small barrier to prevent the river from contaminating the other side as well.

Everything you see here used to be healthy rice fields. But the rice will not grow here anymore. According to the Save The Abra River Movement, the siltation and toxic pollution of the rivers deprives communities in Cervantes, a small municipality downriver from the Victoria Gold Mine, of about 7.33 million kg of rice worth US$2.27 million per annum.

This is a close up of the cow in the previous photo. Although there are still some weeds and plants that are resilient enough to survive the contaminated water, they have little nutritional value. As a result, this cow is visibly malnourished.

In Cervantes, a few kilometers down river from the Victoria Gold Mine, Suley sits in the middle of her barren farm which has been contaminated by the toxic chemicals that have leaked out of the tailings dam and into the river system. Her farm has been barren for ten years now.

“If it wasn't for the mine, we would be living a good life,” she says, “but now, life is very hard.” Before, Suley's abundant farm more than adequately provided for her entire extended family. Now they are barely able to provide for their basic needs. Every year they try replanting fresh seeds praying that the soil will eventually regenerate. They will do so again this year, but after ten years, nothing has changed.

The surface of the tailings pond at the Victoria Gold Mine in the Philippines.

The Boac River in Marinduque, the Philippines, remains biologically dead twelve years after Placer Dome's tailings dam collapsed.

Acid mine drainage in the Philippines.

contaminated water (left) - carrying with it cyanide, lead, copper, and mercury - joins together with the clean water (right)

Neville "Chappy" Williams, an aboriginal elder of the Wiradjuri Nation (in what is now known as Australia) pauses outside a jewelery store. Chappy has been one of the leaders in the fight to stop Barrick Gold from destroying Lake Cowal, the sacred heartland of the Wiradjuri people.

Ramon, of the indigenous Alangan tribe in the Philippines who face the threat of displacement from their traditional land.

Sheila is one of 258 men, women, and children, from Mtakuja village who were displaced in late July 2007 to make way for an expansion of the Geita Gold Mine. The refugees' court case against the company was recently thrown out of the court after a suspicious meeting behind closed doors between their attorney, the judge, and the team of lawyers representing the company. The three community representatives who travelled 1300km to state their case were never even given the chance to address the judge. In the unlikely event that they can afford to continue with the case, they will have to start all over again.

Mark Ekepa and Anga Atalu, of the Porgera Land Owners Association, travelled half way around the world to attend the annual shareholders meeting of Barrick Gold to raise complains of human rights violations at the hands of Barrick's private security at the Porgera Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea.