Community access to information on the potential environmental and social impacts of mining activities is limited. Moreover, consultation is usually viewed as a necessary formality and the results are rarely considered or implemented. Miners often lack basic safety equipment such as helmets and reliable lights. Toxic chemicals such as arsenic and mercury are routinely employed in the extraction of ore. Miners lack appropriate safety equipment for handling these chemicals.
Injuries are common while ready access to medical attention is the rare exception.
Land and Natural Resources Local community rights to the lands and resources that are affected by mining operations are often ignored. Mining companies also make ready use of bribes and kickbacks to win the favor of community leaders or individuals of influence, circumventing legitimate, established systems of community governance. Livelihood The heavy environmental effects of mining operations frequently jeopardize the ability of affected communities to sustain themselves, destroying traditional subsistence and economic resources. On the Filipino island of Marinduque, the twelve thousand fishermen and their families who for centuries sustained themselves from the biological wealth of Calancan Bay, are having difficulty securing sufficient foodstuffs. For years, the Marcopper mining company, partly-owned by Canadian mining heavyweight Placer Dome, dumped the toxic tailings from its operations at the Mt. Tapian copper mine into the Bay, destroying traditional fishing grounds.