Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte has repeated his call to shut all mines in the country following deadly landslides.
His comments come hours after his minister halted all small-scale mining in a mountainous gold-rich region and two days after a powerful typhoon slammed into the northern Philippines.
Duterte has often criticized the mining industry, saying the environmental damage far outweighs any benefit to the economy.
His latest comments followed an order earlier by Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu to stop all small-scale mining in the Cordillera region, where landslides killed 24 people.
Typhoon Mangkhut, which tore across the northern tip of the Philippines early on Saturday (September 14), killed at least 54 people, many of them due to landslides which some government officials and large miners said were exacerbated by illegal small-scale mining.
