The Mineral Industries of Africa in 2012
2012 Minerals Yearbook AFRICA U.S. Department of the Interior May 2015 U.S. Geological Survey THE MINERAL INDUSTRIES OF AFRICA By Thomas R. Yager, Omayra Bermúdez-Lugo, Philip M. Mobbs, Harold R. Newman, Mowafa Taib, Glenn J. Wallace, and David R. Wilburn The 57 independent nations and other territories of continental • Mozambique—National Directorate of Mines, Africa and adjacent islands covered in this volume encompass • Niger—Ministry Mines and Industrial Development, a land area of 30.3 million square kilometers, which is more • Seychelles—Seychelles Energy Commission, than three times the size of the United States, and were home • South Africa—Department of Mineral Resources, to 1.08 billion people in 2012. Nigeria had a population of • Swaziland—Central Statistical Office, 169 million in 2012; Ethiopia, 91.8 million; Egypt, 80.7 million; • Tanzania—Ministry of Energy and Minerals, the Democratic Republic of the Congo [Congo (Kinshasa)], • Togo—Ministry of Mines and Energy, and 65.7 million; and South Africa, 52.3 million (table 1). For many • Tunisia—National Institute of Statistics. of these countries, mineral exploration and production constitute For basic economic data—the International Monetary Fund. significant parts of their economies and remain keys to future For mineral consumption data— economic growth. Africa is richly endowed with mineral reserves • BP p.l.c., and ranks first or second among the continents in share of world • International Nickel Study Group, reserves of bauxite, chromite, cobalt, ilmenite, industrial diamond, • World Bureau of Metal Statistics, and manganese, phosphate rock, platinum-group metals (PGM), rutile, • World Steel Association. soda ash, vermiculite, and zirconium (Bedinger, 2013; Bray, For exploration and other mineral-related information— 2013; Corathers, 2013; Jasinski, 2013; Kostick, 2013; Loferski, SNL Metals and Mining (formerly SNL Metals Economics 2013a, b; Olson, 2013; Papp, 2013; Shedd, 2013; Tanner, 2013).
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