Mineral Operations of Africa and the Middle East

This dataset consists of records for over 1,500 mineral facilities in Africa and the Middle East. The mineral facilities include mines, plants, mills , or refineries of aluminum, cement, coal, copper, diamond, gold, iron and steel, nickel, platinum-group metals, salt, and silver, among others. Records include attributes such as commodity, country, site, company name, plant capacity if applicable, and generalized coordinates. The data were compiled from multiple sources, including the 2004 USGS Minerals Yearbook (Africa and Middle East volume), minerals statistics and information from the USGS minerals information Web site (http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/), and data collected by USGS minerals information country specialists. Data reflect the most recent published table of industry structure for each country. Other sources include statistical publications of individual countries, annual reports and press releases of operating companies, and trade journals. Due to the sensitivity of some energy commodity data, the quality of these data should be evaluated on a country-by-country basis. Additional information and explanation is available from the country specialists.