NAVALTA, Maryous SJ.

2013 – 58146

With the pressing issues of mining industry being detrimental, it is of utmost important that we know our demographics
to provide statistics on how we can prove that this sector positively contribute in the advancement of our country. That
having said, presented in the succeeding table is the summarized data on the mining companies and their employed
methods as of the current year.

In terms of the mineral type, it can be observed that surface mining, extracting metallic or nonmetallic minerals, has
highly been utilized in most companies covering almost 89% comparing to the underground method which only reached
11%. It is known that this type of mining method, like quarrying and open-pit, are advantageous since they operate at a
cheaper expense (although some use large-scale mining equipment) but most importantly they employ safer mechanisms
and produce high resource recoveries. These considerations were made since most metallic minerals mined are copper
and gold, which are sold to a high cost but also entail high production cost, while limestone and silica are non-metallics
usually produced at large amounts but cheaper operational expenses.

Even at most regions, in the three main clusters of the country, surface mining has deemed to be the most widely used
mining method primarily because of the abundance of non-metallic minerals at certain areas whereas most metals lying
deep down the ground need to be extracted by large equipment which may have been too expensive to do. The far-off
provinces in Luzon and Mindanao employ underground excavation of gold by cut-and-fill or block caving. More
importantly, it is worth pointing out that at these areas, regardless of mining method used, the near-by communities are
constantly given help and opportunities, like education and livelihood, as part of the agreement made with the
government.

There may be significant discrepancies in terms of the operating to suspended mines ratio, however, these companies
only operate to at least 2.01% of the total land area of the country. Little as it may, but its effects in the environment may
be largely detrimental; that’s why we strictly regulate and enforce companies to abide by the standards and rules they
agreed upon. Moreover, this quantity also opens possible prospects that can further intensify the mining industry and
make use of the fortunate resources we have in the Philippines; this should be taken as a good chance rather a liability.

Above everything, whether a company employs surface or underground method, their responsibility to assure that the
environment is unharmed and the communities near the plant operation receive the treatment they deserve are the most
important deeds they should be prioritizing. After all, we’ll be left with none if we don’t take care of what we have.