The economy of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is largely underdeveloped with the vast majority of the population living below the poverty line. However, according to the Asian Development Bank its GDP is expected to grow 3.4% in 2022 and 4.6% in 2023. It is dominated by the agricultural, forestry, and fishing sector and the minerals and energy extraction sector. The agricultural, forestry, and fishing sector accounts for most of the labour force of PNG while the minerals and energy extraction sector, including gold, copper, oil and natural gas is responsible for most of the export earnings.
Coltan is a dull black metallic ore from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted. The niobium-dominant mineral in coltan is columbite, and the tantalum-dominant mineral is the tantalite.
First Quantum Minerals is a Canadian-based mining and metals company whose principal activities include mineral exploration, development and mining. Its main product is copper, which accounts for 80% of revenues as of 2016.
Newmont Corporation, based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, United States, is the world's largest gold mining company. Incorporated in 1921, it has ownership of gold mines in Nevada, Colorado, Ontario, Quebec, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Australia, Ghana, Argentina, Peru, and Suriname. In addition to gold, Newmont mines copper, silver, zinc and lead.
Newcrest Mining Limited is an Australian-based corporation which engages in the exploration, development, mining and sale of gold and gold-copper concentrate. It is Australia's leading gold mining company and its operations have expanded beyond Australia, for example Indonesia, thus becoming a prominent international mining corporation. Newmont Mining Corporation initially started the company as a subsidiary in 1966. The subsidiary became Newmont Holdings Pty Ltd in 1980 and in 1990 acquired 100 per cent of Australmin Holdings Ltd taking the current name.
Adani Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Ahmedabad. It was founded by Gautam Adani in 1988 as a commodity trading business, with the flagship company Adani Enterprises. The Group's diverse businesses include port management, electric power generation and transmission, renewable energy, mining, airport operations, natural gas, food processing and infrastructure. The group has annual revenue of over US$20 billion with operations at 70 locations in 50 countries.
Glencore plc is an Anglo-Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company with headquarters in Baar, Switzerland. Glencore's oil and gas head office is in London and its registered office is in Saint Helier, Jersey. The current company was created through a merger of Glencore with Xstrata on 2 May 2013. As of 2015, it ranked tenth in the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Glencore International was ranked as the 484th-largest public company in the world.
Mining in Iran is still under development, yet the country is one of the most important mineral producers in the world, ranked among 15 major mineral-rich countries, holding some 68 types of minerals, 37 billion tonnes of proven reserves and more than 57 billion tonnes of potential reserves worth $770 billion in 2014. Mineral production contributes only 0.6 per cent to the country's GDP. Add other mining-related industries and this figure increases to just four per cent (2005). Many factors have contributed to this, namely lack of suitable infrastructure, legal barriers, exploration difficulties, and government control.
The mining industry of the Democratic Republic of the Congo plays a significant role in the world's supply of cobalt, copper, diamond, tantalum, tin, gold and produces over 70% of globally produced cobalt. It is the Democratic Republic of the Congo's largest source of export income.
Burundi is a producer of columbium (niobium) and tantalum ore, tin ore, and tungsten ore, and some deposits of gold which are designated for export. Burundi has resources of copper, cobalt, nickel, feldspar, phosphate rock, quartzite, and rare reserves of uranium, and vanadium. The country is also a producer of limestone, peat, sand and gravel for domestic consumption and as building materials. As of 2005, manufacturing accounted for 8% of the country's gross domestic product.
Mining in Ecuador was slow to develop in comparison to other Latin American countries, in spite of large mineral reserves. As late as 2012, according to the United Nations, Ecuador received less foreign direct investment per person than any other country in Latin America. During the 1980s, mining contributed only 0.7 percent to the Ecuadorian economy and employed around 7,000 people. Minerals were located in regions with little to no access, hindering exploration. Ecuador has reserves of gold, silver, copper, zinc, uranium, lead, sulfur, kaolin and limestone. The latter practically dominated the early industry as it was used in local cement plants.
The Telfer Mine is a gold, copper and silver mine located at Telfer on the land of the Martu people, in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia. It is owned by Newcrest Mining, the greatest gold producer listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Tanco Mine or Bernic Lake mine is an underground caesium and tantalum mine, owned and since 2019 owned and operated by Sinomine Resource Group on the north west shore of Bernic Lake, Manitoba, Canada. The mine has the largest known deposit of pollucite and is also the world's largest producer of caesium.
Turquoise Hill Resources is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, a majority-owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto Group. Its principal and only material mineral resource interest is a 66% share of the Oyu Tolgoi Copper-Gold Mine in Southern Mongolia 200 km east of Dalanzadgad. The company was called Ivanhoe Mines until August 2, 2012 when a financing agreement was completed with Rio Tinto.
The Marropino mine is a large mine located in the northern part of Mozambique in Zambezia Province. Marropino represents one of the largest tantalum reserves in Mozambique having estimated reserves of 21.7 million tonnes of ore grading 0.019% tantalum.
The Three Aloes mine is a large mine located in the western part of Namibia in Erongo Region. Three Aloes represents one of the largest tantalum reserves in Namibia, having estimated reserves of 13.2 million tonnes of ore grading 0.026% tantalum.
The Ampasindava mine is the site for a possible rare earths mine in Madagascar. The concession is located in the municipality of Mangaoka, Diana Region in northern Madagascar on the eastern side of the Ampasindava Peninsula. The deposit has reserves amounting to 130 million tonnes of ore grading 0.08% RE. The mine is owned by Tantalus Rare Earths Malagasy Sarl. In 2019, ISR Capital signed a memorandum of understanding with the China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group to develop the mine. Conservation groups have opposed development of the mine, pointing to possible damage the mine could have on wildlife, such as Mittermeier's sportive lemur which is native to the peninsula. As of September 2020, Reeenova applied for a full license to begin mining the deposit.
Iron Road Ltd is an Australian iron ore exploration and mining company, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in Perth, Western Australia since 2008 with an objective to develop a world class magnetite mine and infrastructure in South Australia. Its two projects were the Central Eyre Iron Project (CEIP), the planned output of which was to be 24 million tonnes per annum of approximately 67 per cent iron concentrate for almost 30 years; and the Gawler Iron Project, in abeyance as of 2021. The company's corporate office is in Adelaide.
The mining industry of Yemen is at present dominated by fossil mineral of petroleum and liquefied natural gas (LNG), and to a limited extent by extraction of dimension stone, gypsum, and refined petroleum. Reserves of metals like cobalt, copper, gold, iron ore, nickel, niobium, platinum-group metals, silver, tantalum, and zinc are awaiting exploration. Industrial minerals with identified reserves include black sands with ilmenite, monazite, rutile, and zirconium, celestine, clays, dimension stone, dolomite, feldspar, fluorite, gypsum, limestone, magnesite, perlite, pure limestone, quartz, salt, sandstone, scoria, talc, and zeolites; some of these are under exploitation.
The Bald Hill Lithium and Tantalum Mine is a lithium mine in Australia. It was closed, but is being re-opened for tantalum production. It previously was operated as a tantalum mine by Haddington International Resources. The mine comprises approximately 774 square kilometres in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields Coolgardie Municipal area. It is located approximately 60 kilometres south east of Kambalda and around 50 kilometres east of Widgiemooltha.
