MINERAL RESOURCES


Gold, both placer and vein, is mined in many valleys, mainly in the Cordillera Central and the Cordillera Occidental. Most mines are small, and the most important are located in the Antioquia district. Production was 26,300 kilograms in 1987. There are also several platinum mines (mainly in the San Juan Valley), which produced 448 in 1987 and esmerald mines, mainly northeast Bogota.

There are also deposits of copper, lead, manganese, and mercury. Colombia has the largest coal deposits in South America. Colombia's oilfields produced 17.4 millio tons of oil in 1988 (an average of 451,000 barrels per day in 1989). Scattered over wide areas, the main oilfields are near the Venezuelan frontier in the northeast and in the central and lower Magdalena Valley. Natural gas fields in the Guajira peninsula produced 5,280 million cubic meters of gas. Hydroelectric power stations produce 70 per cent of the country's electricity.


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