Natural resources and energy
Surinam's economically most important natural
resource was for 100 years bauxite, which is a raw
material for aluminum. However, the known deposits are
about to be depleted and the role of the bauxite for the
Treasury has fallen sharply.
There are also gold and other minerals. As in Guyana
and Brazil, the inland environment is now threatened by
gold miners who use mercury to separate the gold from
other minerals as they wash in the rivers. The state has
since 2010 started to try to take greater control of the
perhaps 25,000 individual gold diggers, but mostly to be
able to collect more tax from them. Large-scale gold
mining is also conducted in several Canadian and
American locations. Production has risen sharply in the
2000s and gold is now Surinam's most important export
commodity, accounting for only two-thirds of the
country's export earnings.
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COUNTRYAAH:
Major exports by Suriname with a full list of the top products exported by the country. Includes trade value in U.S. dollars and the percentage for each product category.
Suriname's rainforests contain great wealth in the
form of timber. In the mid-1990s, there were
long-standing plans to give large areas to foreign
companies, but the plans were put on ice. Large-scale
forestry is feared to pose a threat to the environment
and to the groups of Native Americans and Maroons living
inland.
Oil has been mined since the 1980s by the state-owned
company Staatsolie. Almost half of the oil is exported
to other countries within the Caricom organization. The
outlook is believed to be good for increased recovery.
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Abbreviationfinder: A popular acronym site in the world covering abbreviation for each country. For example, SR stands for Suriname.
Suriname produces enough electricity for domestic
consumption. The majority comes from hydropower.
FACTS - ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
Energy use per person
1,282 kilograms of oil equivalent (2014)
Electricity consumption per person
3697 kWh, kWh (2014)
Carbon dioxide emissions in total
1 991 thousand tonnes (2014)
Carbon dioxide emissions per inhabitant
3.6 tonnes (2014)
The share of energy from renewable sources
24.9 percent (2015)
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