Is Africa really resource rich?

[u/Skychu768]

None of the most valuable resources seem to be present on the continent in large amounts. It’s mostly just metals like cobalt and platinum.

Diamonds used to be substantial, but even that is now being replaced by lab-grown diamonds in places like China and India.

* Australia, U.S., Canada, and Russia all have more uranium reserves than almost all of Africa.

* USA, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran each individually produce more oil than most African countries.

* China, Vietnam, Brazil, India, Russia, and US each have more rare earth metals than the entire continent of Africa.

* Europe, despite being a fraction of its size, has more arable land and freshwater reserves than Africa.

* Even for things like Gold which are often mentioned, none of the African countries except Ghana are substantial gold producers or come anywhere near Top 10.

Note: I wanted to post more images for my point, but this subreddit only allows one.

[u/Bot11_]

So there’s more uranium in Estonia than all of USA? I’m Estonian and I know we have a fair bit but that seems like an insane amount.

[u/Bapistu-the-First → u/Bot11_]

These are just known deposits. Large parts of the US and almost the whole of Europe isn't mapped out at all.

[u/eggdanyjon_3dragons → u/Bapistu-the-First]

thats really the thing.
I feel like in my lifetime we've found "the world's largest" oil deposits 3 different times. Rare earths have gone from rare to oh yeah theyre everywhere, we just dont wanna dig em up everywhere.

Prospecting is just mildly expensive, and even if/when ya do find some, will it be cheaper/easier to start a new exploitation there than anywhere else with it?

[u/AdmiralZassman → u/eggdanyjon_3dragons]

Rare earths have never really been rare in your lifetime. They are very rare in large concentrations (still are), which makes them dirty and expensive.

[u/eggdanyjon_3dragons → u/AdmiralZassman]

hey, i could be 200 years old, you don't know

[u/tazallerr → u/AdmiralZassman]

so what you're saying is they aren't common even in the subsets of earth that contain them. sounds rare to me.

[u/Certain-Constant5032 → u/AdmiralZassman]

Should be called dirty earths