page_title: Orinoco
section_title: Economics
hierarchical_section_title: Orinoco / Economics
caption_attribution_description: Bridge over the Orinoco at Ciudad Bolivar Venezuela
context_page_description: The Orinoco is a main river in northern South America. It is one of the longest rivers in South America, at 2,140 km. Its drainage basin, sometimes called the Orinoquia, covers 880,000 square kilometres, with 76.3% of it in Venezuela and the rest in Colombia. The Orinoco and its tributaries are the main transport system for eastern and interior Venezuela and the llanos of Colombia.
  The Orinoco Basin is also ecologically important. It is the only habitat of the Orinoco crocodile. This is one of the rarest reptiles in the world, with fewer than 250 living in the wild. It is also home to Amazon river dolphins.
context_section_description: Boats can travel on the river for most of its length. Ocean ships can travel as far as Ciudad Bolívar, 435 km (270 mi) upstream. River steamers carry cargo as far as Puerto Ayacucho.
  There is a rich iron ore deposit in the Orinoco delta. It was found in 1926, south of the town of San Felix on a mountain named El Florero. Mining there began after World War II. At the start in the early 1950s, about 10,000 tons of soil with ore in it was being mined each day.
  There are also tar sands in the Orinoco Belt, which may be a source of future oil production.
caption: Bridge over the Orinoco at Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2004:11:20 14:16:33", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3993", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "400", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "264"}