Mining takes place on only a few islands. The major reserves
are on the continental islands, notably petroleum,
gold, and copper on the main island of Papua New Guinea;
copper on Bougainville (an island belonging to Papua New
Guinea); and nickel on the French-held island of New Caledonia.
French Polynesia exports some of the world’s fi nest
and largest sea pearls, which are classifi ed as gems. The
13,000 people of the tiny oceanic island of Nauru, which
gained independence from Australia in 1968, once enjoyed
a high average income from the mining of phosphate, the
product of thousands of years of accumulation of seabird
excrement, or guano, which is used as fertilizer. Until recently,
Nauru’s economy depended totally on annual exports
of 2 million tons of phosphate and on revenues earned
from overseas investments of profi ts from phosphate sales.
This resource is approaching total depletion, however, and
because the mining of phosphate has stripped the island of
80 percent of its soil and vegetation, turning it into a virtual
lunar landscape, many people in Nauru are now looking
for a new island home (xFigure 8.13).
Others are content with what they see as Nauru’s most
recent and, they hope, future source of revenue: money
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