SP801
Capstone
Project

As the mining sector progress, the substantial amount of green-house gas emissions is a great
concern. This emission is the main reason why climate change occurs and has a tremendous impact in
agriculture. International Trade Administration (2022) stated that the Philippines is the seventh-largest
market for U.S. agricultural exports and the top market in Southeast Asia. And also, considered as an
agricultural country with a land area of 30 million hectares, 47% of which is agricultural land.
We have rich land, natural resources, hardworking farmers and agri-research institutions
(Atilano, 2017).
The global warming has been bringing massive effects such as intense typhoons as this changes the
rainfall pattern and distribution, droughts, and threatening biodiversity.
Source:
International Trade Administration (July 2022). https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/philippines-agricultural-sectors
Atilano, C. (2017). Asia 21 Alumni Series: On Agriculture. https://asiasociety.org/philippines/asia-21-alumni-series-
agriculture#:~:text=The%20Philippines%20is%20an%20agricultural,farmers%20and%20agri%2Dresearch%20institutions.

“
”
Climate Change is no longer some
far-off problem; it is happening here,
it is happening now.
BARACK OBAMA
FORMER PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Is there an association between mining operations and temperature in the Philippines?
This study aims to examine the association of active mining operations and temperature
in the Philippines from year 2017 to February 2022.

Data Collection
Gathering of data from the ff.
websites:
• Mining: https://data.gov.ph
• Temperature:
https://tcktcktck.org/philippines
Optimization &
Presentation
Use of tables, figures ad graphs to
optimize data and organize them for
understandable representations.
Diagnostic Analytics
Determining an association between
two independent variables using
Correlation Coefficient.

Operational
Mining
Contractors (2017
– February 2022)
The bar graph shows that
in 2021 and early 2022,
there is a drastic increase
of miners in the
Philippines with total of
44.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 - feb2022
No.
of
Mining
Contractors
No. of Operational Mining Companies from
2017 to February 2022
Year Count of Contractor
2017 27
2018 28
2019 28
2020 33
2021 - feb2022 44

Mining
Commodities
(2017 – February
2022)
According to Austrade, the
Philippines is the 5th most
mineralized country in the
world, with the 3rd largest
deposits of gold, 4th for
copper, 5th for nickel and
6th for chromite.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 - feb2022
No.
of
Mining
Contractors
Commodities from 2017 to February 2022
Gold Silver Copper Nickel Chromite Iron
Commodities 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 - feb2022
Gold 9 10 11 10 13
Silver 9 9 10 10 11
Copper 3 3 4 3 5
Nickel 17 17 16 21 26
Chromite 1 1 1 3 3
Iron 0 0 0 0 4
Source: https://www.austrade.gov.au/australian/export/export-
markets/countries/philippines/industries/mining

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Agusan del Norte
Agusan del Sur
Benguet
Bulacan
Cebu
Compostela Valley
Davao Oriental
Dinagat Islands
Eastern Samar
Leyte
Masbate
Nueva Vizcaya
Palawan
South Cotabato
Surigao del Norte
Surigao del Sur
Zambales
Zamboanga del Sur
Average No. of Operational Mining Companies
As the graph shows, the
highest average of
actively operating miners
is located in Dinagat
Island, a province in
CARAGA region. Second
in line are from Benguet,
Surigao del Norte,
Surigao del Sure and
Zambales.

Annual Temperature of Mining Locations in the
Philippines: Highest Average in Celsius (°C )
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
Agusan del
Norte
Agusan del
Sur
Benguet Bulacan Cebu Compostela
Valley
Davao
Oriental
Dinagat
Islands
Eastern
Samar
Leyte Masbate Nueva
Vizcaya
Palawan Surigao del
Norte
Surigao del
Sur
Zambales Zamboanga
del Sur
South
Cotabato

Mining Locations
Average No. of
Operators
Temperature
Average low (°C ) Average high (°C )
Agusan del Norte 2 22.59 31.38
Agusan del Sur 1 21.7 31.66
Benguet 4 19.86 27.95
Bulacan 1 24.06 31.21
Cebu 1 25.38 29.34
Compostela Valley 1.2 20.56 28.94
Davao Oriental 1 24.61 28.83
Dinagat Islands 5.2 26.46 28.78
Eastern Samar 1.4 25.18 29.24
Leyte 1 24.12 29.43
Masbate 1 26.69 29.32
Nueva Vizcaya 1.8 17.47 25.89
Palawan 2 25.9 29.33
Surigao del Norte 1 26.46 28.78
Surigao del Sur 4 21.37 31.71
Zambales 4 23.89 30.1
Zamboanga del Sur 4 23.62 30.29
South Cotabato 2 20.73 29.81
Although Dinagat Island has
the greatest number of mining
operations, it doesn’t become
the hottest among the others.
The table shows that the
hottest temperature falls in
Surigao del Sur with the
highest annual average
temperature of 31.71 °C.
Agusan del Sur is hotter (31.66
°C) than Agusan del Norte
(3.38 °C).

Given the average of active
mining operations and the highest
temperature of each mining
location, a Correlation Coefficient
has been used to determine the
association between the two
independent variables.
The outcome value is 0.026.
Average high
temperature (°C )
Average No.
of Operators
Average high
temperature (°C ) 1
Average No. of Operators 0.026 1

CONCLUSION
Therefore, there is no strong evidence whether there is an
association between mining and temperature in the Philippines.
The disclaimer about the study is the limited source of data
about how much green-house-gases that these mining
companies are emitting to better substantiate its effect to
temperature.

RECOMMENDATION
Assuming that open data and resources are available, this initial
study can be a great reference for developing further studies.
Notwithstanding, aside from mining, there are more diverse
contributions from other elements that can be considered.
Much of a contributing factors are GHG emissions from
factories, deforestation and urbanization that could also be
subjected to study.