|
Angola Other Minerals
In addition to diamonds and iron ore, Angola is also
rich in
several other mineral resources that had not been fully
exploited
by the late 1980s. These include manganese, copper, gold,
phosphates, granite, marble, uranium, quartz, lead, zinc,
wolfram,
tin, fluorite, sulfur, feldspar, kaolin, mica, asphalt,
gypsum, and
talc. The government hoped to resume mining in the
southwest for
crystalline quartz and ornamental marble. It has been
estimated
that 5,000 cubic meters of marble could be extracted
annually over
a period of twenty years. A state-owned company mined
granite and
marble in Huíla and Namibe provinces and in 1983 produced
4,450
cubic meters of granite and 500 cubic meters of marble.
Since then,
the company has ceased production to re-equip with modern
machinery. Quartz production, however, was suspended
indefinitely
because of the military situation in the areas close to
the
extraction sites in Cuanza Sul Province.
The government established a company in 1980 to exploit
phosphate deposits located in the northwest. There were 50
million
tons of deposits in Zaire Province and about 100 million
tons in
Cabinda. Although studies of the deposits in both
locations have
been made by Bulgarian and Yugoslav companies, as of 1988
production had not started at either site.
Data as of February 1989
|
