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.
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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Suriname produces enough electricity for domestic consumption. The majority comes from hydropower.
