MINERAL RESOURCES
Oil (0.9 million tons in 1988; an average of 19,000 barrels per day in 1989) and natural gas (2,514 million cubic meters in 1985) are produced on the eastern fringes of the Cordillera Oriental (around Santa Cruz, Camiri, and Yacuiba). Pipelines carry the oil to the Pacific port of Arica (in Chile) and the gas to Argentina. Oil production, which reached its peak in the mid 1970s (1.9 million tons in 1976), has declined because of a failure to develop new sources. The production and export of natural gas has increased, however, and in 1986 provided nearly 50 percent (in value) of Bolivia's exports.
Next in importance is tin, which is mainly in the vecinity of Oruro. Some mines are located at altitudes of over 4,000 meters (14,000 feet). Bolivias was the world's largest producer of tin during the first half of the twentieth century. Large-scale tin mining began in 1895 and replaced silver as Bolivia's most important export, which has held this position since the sixteenth century. Other mineral produced (mainly in the Oruro and Potosi regions) are zinc, antimony, sulfur, copper, silver, gold, lead, bismuth, and uranium. Large deposits of iron ore have been discovered but are exploited only on a small scale.
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