Mineral rich countries around the world | Diamantina Laboratories

Countries with plenty mineral wealth buried beneath the surface

Traditionally we look at the oil-rich countries as the wealthiest, or at least those with an abundance of resources that the rest of the world both needs and wants. When it comes to mineral wealth, things are not as easy to define. Many minerals are in demand because they are pretty and people like pretty things, simplistic but true. Sure, there are uses to some minerals, but often the most valuable minerals are those that people want to place on their wrist, neck or head, or use to gold plate their private jet.
Let’s take a look at some of those countries that are the richest when it comes to minerals. Remember these minerals are only worth something once they are extracted.

• South Africa

It’s hard to believe when travelling around South Africa that they contain more mineral reserves than most other countries. South Africa has many rich people, but like many rich countries the wealth sits in the hands of the few. So while the poor do all the hard, dangerous work in retrieving the mineral wealth, it’s only the rich who enjoy the fruits of their labour. 
It’s been reported that South Africa has $2.5 trillion in mineral reserves. They produce the most platinum in the world and are amongst the leaders in the production of gold, diamonds, coal and base metals. The irony about South Africa’s wealth is, that in addition to the millions of people living below the bread line, in 2010 they were ranked 5th in the production of coal. Yet, despite this abundance of coal, they still endure regular load shedding (power cuts).

• Russia

Yes, Russia, those ex ‘commies’, are filthy rich. Look, with a country of that size it’s not surprising they have so much wealth lying beneath the surface. Russia contains 20% of the world’s nickel and cobalt reserves, and about 6% of the world’s coal and iron ore.

• Australia

Australia enjoys a robust mining industry and is second in the world when it comes to supplying seaborne ore, with reserves valued at an estimated $737 billion. Of course, that’s not all the Aussies have, they also enjoy reserves of numerous other minerals including nickel and bauxite.

• Ukraine

Russia’s neighbour, Ukraine is also highly productive in the mining sector with more than 300 operational mines. Like their not-so-friendly neighbours they contain large reserves of ore estimated to be close to $510 billion worth. No wonder Putin wants a piece of them.

• Guinea

Probably surprising to many, but Guinea has an estimated $220 billion worth of bauxite. Mining accounts for about 25% of Guinea’s economy and they have a similar amount of the world’s bauxite reserves.

• USA

America, never one to be left out of the loop on anything, has plenty of good stuff buried beneath the surface. This includes almost 33% of the world’s coal reserves.

• China

China, another massive country, also has plenty of mineral wealth, about 90% of which is made up of coal and other rare minerals. They also enjoy about 13% of the world’s coal reserves. When you have that many mouths to feed, it’s best you have some wealth lying somewhere. You can’t just make a living making most of the world’s…well pretty much everything – can you?

• Brazil

Finally Brazil, better known for great soccer players, hot bikini bods and one huge carnival, also has plenty of gold and uranium and a large deposit of iron ore.

So there you are, a bunch of countries with a bunch of good minerals buried deep beneath the earth’s surface, but only worth a fortune once extracted. We haven’t even touched on the oil wealth of countries, that’s for another time. Once these minerals are out of the ground it’s up to the processing specialists to make them really worth something.