The minerals of Africa are an important economic resource
Africa is not only a continent, famousoriginal nature and culture, this continent has a rich reserve of natural resources. In the equatorial zone there is a large part of the continent that provides optimal conditions for the growth of forests, the mass fraction of which is 10% of the total area of the forest massif of the Earth. Wood is the main commodity exported.
Another treasure of Africa is the desertSahara, the depths of which hide huge reserves of fresh water. On this continent are the largest rivers of the planet, which are rightly called the energy minerals of Africa.
The minerals of Africa are the mainsuppliers of resources for enterprises of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, chemical enterprises for the whole planet. The subsoil of Africa is rich in phosphorites, chromites, and titanium. The main reserves of ores (uranium, cobalt, copper, manganese), as well as precious minerals and metals (diamonds, gold) of the globe are concentrated on this continent. The minerals of northern Africa, which include sedimentary minerals, gas and oil, are of world importance. South and central Africa is valued by magmatic minerals - ores of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, as well as diamonds.
Mineral deposits are caused bythe formation of the continent's relief. In the north, there are more lowlands and subsidence, which were flooded with seas, therefore, in the form of precipitation formed coal, manganese ore. East and south of Africa are represented by plateaus and highlands, which historically formed on the site of vertical and horizontal movements of platforms, so this part is rich in diamonds, gold, uranium ores.
This continent owns such unimaginablereserve, that the minerals of Africa on the map do not leave one free place, literally every millimeter of the area contains one or another mineral. Africa is famous for its deposits of ores, whose formation dates back to the time of Paleozoic origin. Currently, this platform is exposed at the equator and the south of the continent, in connection with which, it is these areas that have become the concentration of ore deposits. Thanks to such "exposure" of ancient platforms, the population of the planet became available copper deposits in South Africa, in Southern Rhodesia engaged in the development of chromites, Nigeria is famous for tin and tungsten, Ghana is manganese, and the island of Madagascar can fully provide the entire planet with graphite. But still, the Africans thank the Paleozoic for the deposits of gold. Maybe in some areas, Africa is lagging behind the countries of the west, but in the field of gold mining, this continent, represented by South Africa, has long and firmly held the position of leader.
Cambrian period of formation of terrestrial platformsconsiders the beginning of the laying of the copper belt, which formed such minerals of Africa as copper, tin, cobalt, lead, tungsten and brought it to the leading positions in the world. In developing and extracting the above-mentioned fossils, Africa ranks second. During this period, deposits of uranium and platinum ores were formed on the continent. In the depths of the sea formed iron ore, but due to the deposition of sea salts, these minerals of Africa are low-grade.
At the junction of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic, the Earth's platformcontinent experienced a quiet period with a lack of movement of the Earth's platforms, which allowed the formation of deposits of coal, which is especially abundant in South Africa, Rhodesia, Congo and Madagascar.
The Sahara-Sudan plain of Africa is the most complexthe structure of education, which has undergone fractures and outcrops of rocks, uplifts and deflections of ancient foundations, is valued by deposits of iron, manganese ores and oil.
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