This chapter provides comparative for a variety of variables covering each
country's mineral resources. For a full discussion of the methodology used to generate
these estimates, please refer to Chapter 1 which gives important caveats. This chapter
first gives summary statistics of the variables reported; the number of countries for which
each variable was available, weighted averages (by population) and simple averages; these
averages can be used as benchmarks. Then a lengthy comparative table is presented
which provides raw statistics across countries.

Most of the variables are self explanatory, thought some merit commentary. All of the
statistics should be considered as estimates which have undergone rounding and certain
adjustments. First, across 44 minerals, each country is characterized as living in areas
holding a given percent of the world's known reserves. A value of "0" should be
interpreted as a negligible level or a very small percentage of known world reserves.
These reserves may not be economically viable, so the measure reflects an exogenous
presence, rather than a mining activity. For example, South Africa contains 89% of the
world's known reserves of platinum. The sum of these percentage is then reported as
"Total minerals: % sum." The number of minerals which are heavily mined are then
given: "Number of Minerals." Finally, per capita oil reserves are estimated. Some
national cultures do not reside in areas with these mineral resources.

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