Trinidad and Tobago - Mining

Trinidad and Tobago had the largest supply of natural asphalt, and became the second-largest exporter of ammonia, behind Russia. The island's famous Pitch Lake, a 46-hectare deposit of oozing black asphalt, has been mined commercially since the 19th century. The annual yield has declined, from an average of 200,000 tons in the 1960s, to 18,100 in 1996 and 9,897 in 2000. The country produced 2.7 million tons of anhydrous ammonia in 2000, up from 1.8 in 1997. Iron ore deposits of commercial value were reported to have been discovered in Trinidad's Northern Range. Quarrying operations on the islands in 2000 produced 1.1 million tons of limestone, down from 1.6 in 1996, and 742,645 tons of hydraulic cement, up from 617,100 in 1996.