THE MINERAL INDUSTRY OF THE PHILIPPINES—2001 21.1 THE MINERAL INDUSTRY OF

democratic republic, is located just north of the equator about 1,100 kilometers (km) east of the coast of the mainland of Southeast Asia. The country is an archipelago that comprises 7,000 islands, of which fewer than 900 are inhabited by the country’s 78 million people; the major islands are Luzon in the north, Visayas in the middle, and Mindanao in the south. The archipelago is within the “Pacific Rim of Fire, ” which is so-called because of the intense volcanic activity at the margins of the tectonic plates and is well-known for epithermal gold, porphyry copper-gold, and volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposits (U.S. Department of State, 2001§1). The Philippines has been a significant producer of chromite, copper, gold, and nickel, and ranked among the world’s top 10 producers. Other important mineral commodities are coal, gypsum, silver, and sulfur. Significant deposits of clay, limestone, marble, phosphate, and silica also exist. As late as the 1990s, the mineral industry, which was considered to be the backbone of the country’s economy, contributed about 30 % to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). By 2001, however, the mining industry’s contribution had dropped to a mere 1.8 % of the $71,500 million GDP (Asian Journal o