Giant mining enterprises of the world

GIANT MINING ENTERPRISES OF THE WORLD
Introduction
The purpose of the test is to study the following questions:
World market.

1. 
   Leading mining companies in the world
   
2. 
   Distribution of major mining countries by quantity of mineral products produced
   
3. 
   The main regions are consumers of mining products
   
4. 
   Industry trends and prospects.
   

1. 
   

1. Overview of the mining industry

The mining industry is a complex of industries involved in the extraction and beneficiation of minerals - such as base metals (polymetallic ores, copper, lead, aluminum, etc.), precious metals, iron ore, uranium ores, coal, diamonds, limestone, potassium feldspar (potash), graphite, asbestos, mica, clays and other mineral building materials.

Development is carried out both open (quarries) and underground (mines).
World market.
The mining industry is one of the leading sectors of the global economy. According to the British newspaper Financial Times, this industry ranked 5th in the world in terms of capitalization of the largest companies after the banking sector, oil and gas, pharmaceutical and computer industries.

Table 1. Capitalization levels of leading sectors of the global economy in 2011

For comparison, in 2005, the mining industry ranked only 24th among global sectors of the world economy in terms of capitalization. Leading companies in this sector have significantly strengthened their positions in global markets over the past period. Thus, the Brazilian corporation Vale in the list of the 500 largest companies in the world moved from 155th place in 2005 to 23rd in 2011, the Rio Tinto company - from 117th to 31st, and BHP Billiton - from 41st. go to the 6th.

Table 2. Leading mining companies in the world in 2011

No country in the world has a complete set of all types of mineral raw materials.

There are only 10 countries in the world that mine over 30 types of minerals. From the figure above it can be seen that the main mining powers of the world are Russia, China, USA, Australia, Brazil, India, South Africa, Canada.


Rice. 1. Distribution of the main mining countries by the number of types of mineral products mined

China remains the main consumer of the world's mining industry.

Rice. 2. Main regions - consumers of mining products in 2011 (share in total revenue, %)

In percentage terms, China's share of revenue in 2011 alone increased from 25% to 27%, while the share of North America decreased, which indicates a redistribution of shares in industry revenue in favor of developing economies.

However, some highly developed countries (for example, the USA, Canada, Australia) have large mineral reserves, often even being world leaders in the extraction of certain types of raw materials. However, in developed countries the share of extractive industries in all industrial production averages 2%, and in developing countries it is 14%.