The

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...

industry, which is limited to the production of

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...

, and gravel, does not play a significant role in the

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...

's economy.Omayra Bermúdez-Lugo
"The Mineral Industry of Benin, Burkina Faso, and Sao Tome e Principe"
. ''2006 Minerals Yearbook''.

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and ...

(October 2007). ''This article incorporates text from this U.S. government source, which is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

''. Cement was produced by Ciments du Benin S.A., Société des Ciments d’Onigbolo, and Société des Ciments du Benin. These companies had a combined cement production capacity of 1.43 million metric tons per year (Mt/yr). Gold was produced by

artisanal An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...

miners from gold veins near the villages of Kwatena and Tchantangou, in the

Atakora Mountains The Togo Mountains is a mountain range which stretches across the central region of the West African country of Togo and across the eastern and western borders of that country into Ghana and Benin. In Ghana, the range is also known as the Akwapim ...

in northwestern Benin, and from alluvial sediments along the Perma River and its tributaries. Benin ceased

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

production from its Seme oilfield in 1998; however, at least one company, Kosmos Energy LLC of the United States, explored for petroleum in 2006. Kosmos, through its subsidiary Kosmos Energy Benin HC, had a 40% working interest in an exploration license for Block 4, which is located about 30 kilometers (km) offshore Benin. Kosmos’ venture partners were Kerr-McGee Benin Consortium S.A. (an affiliate of Kerr-McGee Corporation of the United States) (40%) and Petronas Carigali Overseas Sdn Bhd of Malaysia (20%). In 2006, the partners conducted a 1,472-square-kilometer (km2) three-dimensional (3D)

seismic Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...

survey of the Block’s most prospective areas and were in the process of interpreting and reprocessing existing 3D seismic data.

References

Mining in Benin Economy of Benin {{Benin-stub