The economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has declined drastically around the 1980s, despite being home to vast potential in natural resources and mineral wealth; their gross domestic product is $48.994 billion as of 2019.
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 tantalite.
Spodumene is a pyroxene mineral consisting of lithium aluminium inosilicate, LiAl(SiO3)2, and is a source of lithium. It occurs as colorless to yellowish, purplish, or lilac kunzite (see below), yellowish-green or emerald-green hiddenite, prismatic crystals, often of great size. Single crystals of 14.3 m (47 ft) in size are reported from the Black Hills of South Dakota, United States.
The mining industry of the Democratic Republic of the Congo produces copper, diamonds, tantalum, tin, gold, and more than 63% of global cobalt production. Minerals and petroleum are central to the DRC's economy, making up more than 95% of value of its exports.
Zijin Mining Group Co., Limited is a multi-national mining company headquartered in Mainland China.
The mining of minerals in Nigeria accounts for only 0.3% of its gross domestic product, due to the influence of its vast oil resources. The domestic mining industry is underdeveloped, leading to Nigeria having to import minerals that it could produce domestically, such as salt or iron ore. The rights to ownership of mineral resources is held by the Federal Government of Nigeria, which grants titles to organizations to explore, mine, and sell mineral resources. Organized mining began in 1903, when the Mineral Survey of the Northern Protectorates was created by the British colonial government. A year later, the Mineral Survey of the Southern Protectorates was founded. By the 1940s, Nigeria was a major producer of tin, columbite, and coal. The discovery of oil in 1956 hurt the mineral extraction industries, as government and industry both began to focus on this new resource. The Nigerian Civil War in the late 1960s led many expatriate mining experts to leave the country. Mining regulation is handled by the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, who are tasked with the responsibility of overseeing the management of all mineral resources in Nigeria. Mining law is codified in the Federal Minerals and Mining Act of 1999. Historically, Nigeria's mining industry was monopolized by state-owned public corporations. This led to a decline in productivity in almost all mineral industries. The Obasanjo administration began a process of selling off government-owned corporations to private investors in 1999. The Nigerian Mining Industry has picked up since the "Economic Diversification Agenda", from Oil & Gas, to Agriculture, Mining, etc., began in the country.
Manono is a town and territory in Tanganyika Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Kinsevere is an open pit mine and Heavy Media Separation plant with an electric arc furnace formerly operated by Anvil Mining, and now operated by Minerals and Metals Group. It is located 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of Lubumbashi, Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Copper mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo mainly takes place in the Copper Belt of the southern Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Coltan is the colloquial name for the mineral columbite-tantalum ("col-tan"); it is sometimes incorrectly used as shorthand for tantalite, a metallic ore from which the very similar elements niobium, also known as columbium, and tantalum are extracted. In the early 21st century coltan mining was associated with human rights violations such as child labour, systematic exploitation of the population by governments or militant groups, exposure to toxic chemicals and other hazards as a result of lax environmental protection, and general safety laws and regulations.
Ivanhoe Mines is a Canadian mining company focused on advancing its three principal projects in Southern Africa: the development of new mines at the Kamoa-Kakula copper discoveries in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Platreef palladium-platinum-nickel-copper-rhodium-gold discovery in South Africa, and the extensive redevelopment and upgrading of the historic Kipushi zinc-copper-germanium-silver mine, also in the DRC. Ivanhoe also is exploring for new copper discoveries on its wholly owned Western Foreland exploration licences in the DRC, near the Kamoa-Kakula Project.
The Greenbushes lithium mine is an open-pit mining operation which is in Western Australia and is the world's largest hard-rock lithium mine. It is located to the south of the town of Greenbushes, Western Australia. The Greenbushes lithium mine produces approximately 1.95 million tonnes of lithium spodumene annually. The mine is 250 kilometres (160 mi) south of Perth and 90 kilometres (56 mi) southeast of the Port of Bunbury.
Idaho Cobalt Operations (ICO) is a cobalt mine located in Lemhi County, Idaho in the United States near the town of Salmon. The mine has reserves amounting to 3.8 million tonnes of ore grading 0.5% cobalt. The mine will also produce copper and gold. The project is located directly adjacent to the inactive Blackbird mine.
The geology of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is extremely old, on the order of several billion years for many rocks. The country spans the Congo Craton: a stable section of ancient continental crust, deformed and influenced by several different mountain building orogeny events, sedimentation, volcanism and the geologically recent effects of the East Africa Rift System in the east. The country's complicated tectonic past have yielded large deposits of gold, diamonds, coltan and other valuable minerals.
Australia has the world's second-biggest lithium reserves and is the biggest producer of lithium by weight, with most of its production coming from mines in Western Australia. Most Australian lithium is produced from hard-rock spodumene, in contrast to other major producers like Argentina, Chile and China, which produce it mainly from salt lakes.
Géomines was a Belgian mining company active in the Belgian Congo and then in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was established in 1910, and exploited a large deposit in the southeast of the country to become one of the largest tin producers in the world. It was taken over by Zairetain in 1968.
Cominière was a Belgian holding company active in the Belgian Congo. It was involved in plantations, forestry, mining, railways and other activities. The Congo assets were nationalized when the Democratic Republic of the Congo became independent in 1960. What remained of Cominière was acquired by Lonhro in 1971.
Piana–Mwanga Hydroelectric Power Station, also Mpiana–Mwanga Hydroelectric Power Station, is a 54 megawatts (72,000 hp) hydroelectric power station in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The power plant was originally commissioned in 1933 to service a nearby tin mine. The tin mine was mothballed in 1982 and so was the power station. In 2020, the mining conglomerate AVZ Minerals Limited, reached an agreement to rehabilitate the power station to power its mining operations in Manono Territory, including the Manono–Kitotolo Mine, one of the largest lithium mines in the DRC, whose reserves are estimated at 120,000,000 tonnes of ore.
The Rubaya mines, also known as the Bibatama Mining Concession, is a series of coltan mining sites near the town of Rubaya in Masisi Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Officially, the mining license is held by Société Minière de Bisunzu Sarl (SMB), associated with Congolese senator Edouard Mwangachuchu. Specific sites include Bibatama D2, Luwowo, Gakombe D4, Koyi, Mataba D2, Bundjali, and Bibatama D3.
The Finnis Lithium Project is a lithium mine being developed near Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. The project is being developed by Core Lithium.
