BUTUAN CITY (PNA) -- From merely 16 two years ago, Caraga Region now has 46 approved large-scale mining permits while 17 others are still awaiting approval, official records from the Bureau of Mines and Geo-Sciences as of September 2009 revealed.

Of the 17 mining permits for approval, 16 are exploration permits and one existing large-scale mineral processing permit.

These permits do not include yet the approved small-scale mining permits whose operations are sprouting like mushrooms all over the region.

Local government units are constitutionality mandated to regulate, approve or disapprove applications for small-scale mining activities.

To date, there are about 320 approved small-scale mining permits all over Caraga Region, records from different local government units in the region showed.

Every approved small-scale mining permit is designated a maximum of 20 hectares to develop, explore and extricate minerals.

This actually puts Caraga Region as the number one destination of large-scale mining firms including small-scale mining activities in the Philippines, having earned the tag name as the "Mining Capital in the Philippines" if not in the whole of Asia.

In its Sept. 30, 2009 report, the Bureau of Mines said the 46 approved large-scale mining permits cover a total land area of 112,073.78 hectares, twice bigger than the number of productive corn land areas combined in the region which has only less than 50,000 hectares planted with corn.

According to the Department of Agriculture and different farmers' groups, the number of hectarage of agricultural lands planted with palay is only 61,321 hectares in the whole of Caraga out of the total 141,518 hectares of potential riceland areas in the region.

Records show that from different farmers' groups, the ideal number of hectares supposedly to be planted with both rice and corn is 150,000 hectares to feed the more than 1.36 million total population of the Caraga Region.

In the island of Visayas, 89,376.59 hectares of land were approved for large-scale mining for the island's three regions namely Regions 6, 7 and 8.

For Mindanao island, Region 9 has 10 large-scale mining permits approved, Region 10 has seven, Region 11 (Davao areas) has 20, Region 12 has six while Caraga Region or Region 13 has 46 approved large-scale mining permits.

In Luzon, CAR or Cordillera Administrative Region has 11, covering a total land area of 15,543.04 hectares; Region 1 has 13 covering a total land area of 15,083.38 hectares; Region 2 has two; Region 3 has 35, covering a total land area of 37,934.21 hectares; Calabarzon or Region IV-A has 30 covering a land area of 8,442.62 hectares; Region IV-B or Mimaropa has 14, covering 31,250.68 hectares; and Region 5 or Bicol Region has 23 approved large-scale mining permits covering 24,547.16 hectares.