by Marianne P. Abanilla
Production Accounts Division, Economic Statistics Office, NSCB

The Philippine mining and quarrying industry produces a variety of products, which come from different categories of minerals such as precious metals, iron and ferro-alloy metals, base metals, fertilizer minerals, industrial minerals, gemstone and decorative minerals. For its economic significance, two categories are commonly identified: metallic minerals and non-metallic minerals. Metallic minerals include gold, copper, nickel, chromium and other metals while non-metallic minerals are coal, crude oil, stone, clay, sandpits and other non-metallic minerals such as salt, fertilizers and others.

The Philippines is one of the countries richly endowed with mineral resources. In 1994, the estimated value of production of metallic and non-metallic minerals stood at 15 billion peso and 9 billion pesos, respectively. (1994 Mineral News Service No. 9 of Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau)

The industry played important roles in both our domestic and international economy.

In 2002, the value added of mining and quarrying industry at constant prices showed a remarkable performance exhibiting a 51.0% increase from last year, which is attributable to the continued production of gold, copper and other non-metallic. In addition, the new discoveries and extraction of natural gas and crude oil from Malampaya in 2002 contributed significantly to the industry.

The presence of natural gas in the estimates of crude oil made the latter’s contribution to the total mining industry rise significantly from 1.0% to a double digit share of 28.3%, making the crude oil as one of the most important sub-sectors of the industry. With this, the mining and quarrying industry is now included among the industries to be promoted in 2003 through sectoral development programs as stated in the Approved 2003 IPP Investment Priorities Plan of the Board of Investments (BOI).

Editorial Board:

Romulo A. Virola
Estrella V. Domingo
Raymundo J. Talento
Vivian R. Ilarina

For inquiries on this series, please contact:

Marianne P. Abanilla
Production Accounts Division, Economic Statistics Office, NSCB
Tel. No. (632) 896-5372; Fax No. (632) 895-5002
E-mail: mp.abanilla@nscb.gov.ph