Philippines Gold Mining

I visited all the Philippines gold mining areas. The journey started in Paracale, then moved to Itogon in Luzon. Finally I went to Mindanao and climbed Mt Diwata known as Mount Diwalwal. The 8 mining videos below show panning, dredging, slucing and hard rock mining. All the small scale Filipino miners were very friendly and seemed to enjoy their gold prospecting.

Paracale Gold Mine

Go down into a real Philippines gold mine. No shoes, no hardhat, not OSHA approved. See rich gold veins and some of the tough Filipino miners. We even found diamonds down there. It was a lot of fun but you won't see those TV gold rush miners go in a place like this. Need some one to check out a underground mine and get you samples, I might be your guy.

Paracale River Dredging

I took a carved wood canoe out into the Paracale river. There I explored the bamboo dredge huts lined up in the river. The divers were sucking up gold filled sand with 4-6 inch dredges. The water was warm and clear. It reminded me of a tropical Nome, Alaska. These primitive dredges were interesting but the wood sluice boxes were losing gold.

A Gold Mountain in Mindanao

In 1983 a man found gold nuggets on Mt Diwata. But loose lips sink ships and today there are 40,000 gold miners and their families living there. Up high in the mountains the weather is cool and it's a nice village with friendly people. Gold is everywhere with no end in sight.

Gold Panning Philippines

A few hours North of Angeles City is a area East of Itogon with rivers of flour gold. High in the mountains, it's dry and cool. See local Filipino miners fill their pans with gold using old forgotten mining techniques. This place is beautiful with waterfalls and butterflies floating around. The weather feels like a beautiful summer day in the high Sierra mountains of California.