proposed infrastructure projects, including a seawater pipeline from the coast to the ore-processing center at <mark>Zouérat,</mark> could further expand the country’s iron-ore export capacity. Mauritania is currently the continent’s second-largest iron exporter after South Africa, and its estimated iron reserves are so large that even as extraction rates continue to increase its stock of ore is expected to support large-scale exports for many decades to come The Swiss extractive company Xstrata has also entered the Mauritanian iron ore industry recently, in an agreement with SNIM.

**Mauritania also exports gold and copper, at 200,000 ounces and roughly 45,000 tons, respectively, in 2012.**<sup>**8**</sup> Gold is exclusively in the hands of foreign companies and the main extractor is KINROSS Gold, a Canadian mining firm<sup>9</sup> that launched operations in Mauritania in 2007 and employs roughly 1,500 local workers. Initial production was approximately 11,000 ounces per year, but increased to over 200,000 ounces in 2010 and is expected to more than double after 2016, depending on gold prices.<sup>10</sup> KINROSS Tasiast undertakes a careful corporate social responsibility policy, with a goal of spending US$10 million a year on several projects designed to benefit the local population, including establishing training technical centers and healthcare facilities and expanding access to drinking water, among other efforts. Unlike Mauritanian iron ore, locally mined gold ore has a generally low gold content (approximately 1 gram of gold per ton), which translates into higher production costs. Looking at copper, the main company engaged in actual mining is MCM (Mauritanian Copper Mines), which operates in the Akjoujt region. Copper mining started in 2006, and by end-2009 the extraction reached roughly 4 million tonnes at a strip ratio of 3:1 (waste to ore). The plant employs roughly 1,500 individuals and produces approximately 4,000 tonnes of concentrate copper per month<sup>11</sup> .

**As noted above, oil production in Mauritania began in 2006.** Mauritania's proven and probable crude oil reserves are estimated at around 600 million barrels,<sup>12</sup> a significant stock but far less than was initially estimated and well below the level of other oil-producing countries, including regional oil exporters such as Chad. The first field to be discovered was the Chinguetti oil field, in 2001, followed by Banda in 2002, Pelican and Tiof in 2003, Tevet in 2004, Faucon in 2005, and several more recent discoveries. Mauritania’s three major oil-reserve regions are the coastal basin, the Taoudeni basin, which spans an area between Mauritania and Mali that is roughly the size of Spain, and the offshore fields. Initial estimates of Mauritania’s total oil reserves and production capacity, however, have failed to pan out, and the currently extracts a relatively modest 8,000 barrels a day. Nevertheless, high oil prices and increasingly efficient extraction technologies have made this sector an important contributor to the Mauritanian economy (tax revenues, salaries, exports), and oil currently represents roughly 3 percent of

> 8 Source: ITC, Trademap: www.trademap.org 9 Kinross Gold Corporation has active mines in Canada, the United States, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Russia, Ghana and Mauritania. In Mauritania it operates through the affiliate KINROSS Tasiast Ltd. 10 For more details on the methodological assumptions, please see Annex 2.

> 11 Source: www.first-quantum.com , Guelb-Moghrein plant. 12 For more details, see the official EITI website: www.eiti.org.

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