I spent a couple of weeks in the Philippines in July 07. I was shocked at the amount of mining that we going on around Surigao. Almost every bay had a mine and big ship being loaded with something. Have a look at Nonoc Island , Philippines on Google Earth and look at the red areas which are mines where the topsoil has been taken off. The problem, of course is that it's the tropics so it rains a lot. All the yopsoil is ending up on the reefs. the local fishermen will have nothing to catch and the tourists nothing to see when they go diving.