[3] Mount Halcon is the highest point on the island, standing at 8,484 feet (2,586 m) above sea level located in Oriental Mindoro.

According to the late historian William Henry Scott, an entry in the official history of the Song Dynasty for the year 972 mentions Ma-i as a state which traded with China.

[6] The products that Mindoro traders exchanged with the Chinese included "beeswax, cotton, true pearls, tortoiseshell, medicinal betelnuts and yu-ta [jute?]

Afterward, the area was depopulated due to wars between the Spaniards and the Moros from Mindanao who sought to enslave the Hispanized people and to re-Islamize the island.

[11]: 539 [12]: 31, 54, 113  In 1898, Mindoro joined in the Philippine Revolution against Spain due to the influx of rebels settling into the island from Cavite and Bataan.

Products consist of a wide variety of fruits, such as citrus, bananas, lanzones, rambutan and coconuts, grains (rice and corn), sugarcane, peanuts, fish (catfish, milkfish and tilapia), livestock and poultry.

[14] Tourism is a lucrative business as well, with locations such as Apo Reef National Park, Lubang Island, Puerto Galera, Sabang Beach and Mount Halcon.

Local and international mining interests have disregarded the island's ecology to gain access to the rich tungsten veins that exist below the surface.

[18] Intex, a Norwegian Mining Company attempted to begin prospecting for tungsten deposits, but was halted by a regional environmental protection ordinance.

[19] Small scale, legal and illegal, environmentally degrading mining operations still persist throughout the island due to a lack of enforcement by the local police.

The principal language in Mindoro is Tagalog, usually spoken with Batangas dialect due to its geographical contact with Batangas and Batangueño residents in the island (the reason for making Mindoro part of Southern Tagalog),[21] although in some parts it has been greatly influenced by the native Mangyan and Visayan languages, creating another unique dialect.