The bauxite reserve base is estimated at 28000 million tonnes, and total world resources are estimated at 55 to 75000 million tonnes. (South America 33%, Africa 27%, Asia 17%, Oceania 13%, and elsewhere 10%)
Arsenic is mostly found in association with deposits of complex base-metal ores,particularly copper-lead-zinc ores and arsenical pyrite copper ore. Arsenic trioxide is recovered as a byproduct during the smelting of such ores.
The reserve base is 143 million tonnes. The world’s identified resources total 200 million tonnes, and hypothetical resources include an additional 45 million tonnes.
The world reserve base is 500 million tonnes and total world resources are believed to be roughly 2 billion tonnes but only 500 million tonnes are identified.
Beryllium occurs in approximately 90 minerals with beryl and bertrandite as the two commercial ores. Only the USA has deposits of bertrandite. Outside the USA, firm data on beryl reserves are scarce because of the unpredictable nature of the concentration and occurrence of beryl. The data on non US reserves and resources are poorly delineated, and the figures above are, therefore, only broad estimates.
Bismuth is derived as a byproduct from various base metal ores, mainly lead, but also copper and tin; the above estimates of world reserves are based only on the bismuth content of lead and copper reserves. On the same basis, the reserve base is 250000 tonnes. Coal ash is a potential source of bismuth, as are deep sea manganese nodules.
These figures are based primarily on estimated world resources of zinc. The world reserve base on the same basis is 970000 tonnes and world resources exceed 6 million tonnes. Resources are substantially higher when allowance is made for other cadmium-bearing materials.
The world reserve base totals approximately 2100 million tonnes of contained chromium, 95% of which is found in South Africa and Zimbabwe. World resources total about 3400 million tonnes contained chromium.
The world’s estimated reserve base is 8.8 million tonnes. In addition to the above countries, there are deposits in the USA, Peru, Morocco, Philippines, Uganda, Papua New Guinea and Albania. Identified world resources total 11 million tonnes of cobalt with millions of tonnes of potential resources also contained in seabed nodules.
The reserve base is 590 million tonnes. Total land based resources are estimated at 1600 million tonnes with possibly another 700 million tonnes in deep sea nodules.
Pure fluorspar, CaF2, contains 51% calcium and 49% fluoride. Three principal grades are available commercially; acid grade with 97%+ CaF2; ceramic grade 85–96% CaF2; and metallurgical grade 60%+ CaF2. The above reserve figures refer to 100% CaF2 equivalent. On the same basis, the reserve base is 310 million tonnes.
Most gallium is recovered as a byproduct of the extraction of alumina from bauxite, with recovery from the smelting of zinc ores as the second major source. Gallium’s nature as a byproduct, and the protective patents covering the recovery process prevent any precise measurement of reserves. Nonetheless the world’s bauxite reserves are estimated to contain over 100000 tonnes of gallium, and zinc resources 6500 tonnes. Only a small percentage is economically recoverable.
Germanium is obtained as a byproduct of zinc or copper-zinc ores. No reliable data are available for the reserves of large tracts of the world. The US Bureau of Mines estimates the combined reserves of Canada, the United States, Europe and Africa at 2150 tonnes, with substantial reserves also available in the former Centrally Planned economies. US reserves are estimated at 450 tonnes, and Zaire’s at 200 tonnes, within the overall total.
Detailed estimates of world gold reserves have not kept pace with the exploration activity of the past decade. The figures in the table are therefore highly approximate.
Indium is recovered principally as a byproduct of processing zinc ores but it is also present in some copper, lead and tungsten ores. The reserve base is 5700 tonnes.
Approximately 40% of these reserves are in the form of crushing bort with the balance industrial stones. The world reserve base is 1900 million carats mainly in Australia, Botswana, South Africa, Zaire and Russia. Synthetic industrial diamonds supplement reserves. Continued exploration is increasing the likelihood that large commercially exploitable deposits exist in Canada.
World reserves are estimated at 6.4 million tonnes of crude iodine. These are split between Japan (63%), Chile (14%), USA (9%), China (6%), the former USSR (6%) and Indonesia (2%).
World reserves amount to some 151 billion tonnes of crude ore. The estimated reserve base is 100 billion tonnes of contained iron (230 billion tonnes of crude ore) and resources exceed 800 billion tonnes of crude ore with an iron content of over 230 billion tonnes.
The reserve base is estimated at 130 million tonnes. The figures for some of the smaller countries are heavily rounded with the result that the totals for ‘others’ in both the developed and developing groups, which are obtained by difference, appear too low.
The Western World reserve base, in so far as data are available, is estimated at 8.4 million tonnes, of which two-thirds is in Bolivia. Another location, not included above, is Zaire. The size of the reserve base in Argentina, Brazil, Namibia and Portugal is unknown. Total estimated world resources are approximately 12.7 million tonnes of lithium equivalent.
The reserve base is 3400 million tonnes. Identified world resources of magnesite total some 12 billion tonnes. Furthermore magnesium compounds can be recovered economically from well and lake brines and from seawater. The latter, which contains 0.13% by weight of magnesium, is a major source of metal and compounds.
The reserve base is approximately 4800 million tonnes, 96% of which is located in Australia, S Africa, Gabon, Georgia & Ukraine. In addition, sea bed nodules contain substantial resources of manganese.
The reserve base totals 7 million flasks (240000 tonnes) with, in addition to the above, deposits in Canada and the Philippines. Identified world resources amount to 17 million flasks.
The world reserve base is 11.8 million tonnes mainly located in the USA, Canada, Chile, the former USSR and China. Identified resources amount to approximately 17 million tonnes.
The world’s reserve base is estimated at 110 million tonnes and, in addition to the above countries, includes deposits in Albania, Guatemala, Papua New Guinea and several African nations. The average grade of the reserves included exceeds 1% nickel.
The different deposits of platinum group metals have markedly different ratios between the constituent metals. The US Bureau of Mines and the South African Minerals Bureau give the following breakdowns for the main deposits (in percentage by weight).
The world’s reserve base is estimated at approximately 16500 million tonnes, of which 59% is located in Canada, 6% in Belarus, and 13% in Russia. Total world resources exceed 250 billion tonnes, much of it only recoverable through solution mining techniques due to depth.
The rare earth elements are the group of 15 chemically similar elements with atomic numbers between 57 and 71 inclusive: lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium (together making up the light’ or ‘cerium’ subgroup), gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium and lutetium (which together with yttrium, not itself a rare earth element but invariably associated with them in nature, make up the ‘heavy’ or ‘yttrium’ subgroup).
Rhenium is obtained as a byproduct of molybdenite in porphyry copper operations. The reserve base is 10000 tonnes, of which over 80% is in the USA, Chile and Canada. Only a few copper/molybdenum deposits contain economically viable traces of rhenium.
The reserve base is 130000 tonnes. Selenium occurs as a byproduct with copper, and the above figures only cover the estimated content of economic copper deposits. Substantial resources exist in association with other metals and coal deposits and in currently uneconomic copper deposits.
Silicon is an important constituent of quartzite and other sandstones. There are ample reserves in most major producing countries in relation to demand. Estimates of total reserves, and of their geographical distribution, are not available.
The reserve base is approximately 420000 tonnes. Identified world resources are estimated at 770000 tonnes. The greater part of reserves and resources is associated with base metals such as copper, lead and zinc.
The reserve base is 3500 million tonnes with major deposits located in Canada, Iraq, Spain, Poland and the former USSR. Identified world resources total 5000 million tonnes.
The above data refer to reserves of byproduct tellurium contained in copper deposits of economic grade. The reserve base is 37000 tonnes. Concentrations of tellurium can also be found in lead and gold ores and in coal deposits.
The world reserve base is estimated at 429 million tonnes. It includes deposits in Egypt, Italy, Madagascar and Malaysia in addition to the above countries. Identified resources total about 1 billion tonnes of contained titanium.
Western world reserves are estimated at 50 million tonnes, 50% in the United States, 40% in South Africa and 7% in Brazil and other countries. Substantial deposits exist in China, and the former USSR, but their material generally has inferior exfoliation characteristics.
The reserve base totals 330 million tonnes and identified world resources total 1.8 billion tonnes. If hypothetical and subeconomic resources are included the total would be about 4.4 billion tonnes.
