Community stories
José Marvin Regalado Pacheco, 37, has always been known to be a proactive, hard-working person.
Marvin, from the La Playa community, Honduras, has worked in different lines of work in his lifetime. He started working in mining at 34, which means he has worked in the sector for five and a half years. Before this, he lived in Mexico for five years: he worked with sand for three years, and two as a bricklayer. It was a great experience for him because his boss was very appreciative of his work, so when he quit, his boss told him that he could come back any time.
“The boss told me: listen, if you ever come back, just look for me for work.”
He then returned to Honduras and worked extracting minerals in a mine for 2 years. Subsequently, he started working on an electric power project as an electrician in a tunnel, where he worked for 18 months. He was in charge of setting up the entire electrical system for the explosives. “It was a highly hazardous job, because rocks would fall all the time,” he says. He then started working in Minas y Cuevas S.A. as a miner – a small-scale mining company where he still works. One of his main duties is to make way through the rock using a drill to build the mine’s tunnel.
“The mining sector needs to improve the way it works to avoid harming the environment.”
He usually goes to the mine by bicycle; it takes him 40 minutes to get to work from his home. Since his work starts early, Marvin takes his breakfast and lunch to the mine. He works during the week, so in the weekends he helps his mother-in-law with her business: “I help my mother-in-law with anything that involves working the land. She has an agriculture business. She has a large piece of land, so she’s considering getting livestock.”
Even though he is well aware of the dangers involved in working underground in a mine, he is passionate about his work there. However, in the future he would like to switch jobs and have some other kind of challenge in his work life.
“When you are already tired of what you know, and if you know you are doing well, I would think of moving on to a different working system.”
For Marvin, responsible mining means many things: it means getting to work early and performing his duties; it means making sure that he has all of his working equipment; it means being careful around imminent hazards. He says that the Alliance for Responsible Mining has played a fundamental role in his country in regard to occupational health, since it has held various training sessions and workshops.
“One work that I have always enjoyed is mining.”
