Economy, Mining

Mineral deposits constitute the DRC’s principal source of wealth. The Katanga and Kasai regions are among the world’s largest producers of cobalt and industrial diamonds, but copper is usually the DRC’s most valuable exported mineral because of the quantity exported. Other minerals produced in significant quantities include uranium, tin, gold, silver, coal, zinc, manganese, tungsten, and cadmium. Offshore petroleum reserves have been drilled since 1975. Mineral production declined severely in the 1990s. Although mining continued to account for more than 90 percent of the DRC’s export earnings, it fell from 10 percent of GDP in 1990 to 4.4 percent in 1995 because of the DRC’s political instability and declining world copper prices.