Both the largest and the smallest fish in the world are found in the Philippines. Also found in the archipelago are Tridacna gigas, the world's largest shell which has a length of one meter and weighs 600 pounds, and Pisidum, the smallest shell in the world, which is less than one millimeter long. It was given by the local Muslim chief to an American from California, Wilburn Dewall Cobb, for saving his sick son's life in 1936. The country has rich deposits of gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, manganese, zinc and other metals. It is one of Asia's greatest gold-producing regions.
Copper mining is another old industry in the Philippines.
The greatest iron-bearing area in the Philippines is Surigao, whose iron ore deposit is estimated at one billion tons, being one of the richest undeveloped deposits in the world. In Masinloc, Zambales exists the biggest deposit of high quality chromites in the world. The world's largest deposit of nickel has been discovered in recent years in Nonoc Isle, of the coast of northern Mindanao. Now the Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption in June 1991 is deemed as the world's worst volcanic eruption in the 20th century. Pinatubo in Zambales Province has replaced the Krakatoa volcanic eruption in Indonesia as the worst recorded volcanic calamity to date.