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WORLD CRISIS OVER
MINERALS
Twice in the 1970s angry motorists experienced what it is like to be deprivedofan essential element of
modern life- petroleum. But this was a mere inconvenience compared to the economic calamity that
would resultfrom a cutoffofnonfuel minerals absolutely essential to modern industry.
N
o parts of this unstable–
and
potentially
unstable
- world are more critica!
than the Middle East and south–
ern Africa. By a quirk of geogra–
phy, these two regions contain the
two most critica! resources for the
industrial world-oil and miner–
als.
" Pe rsían Gulf of Míne rals"
What the M iddle East in general
and Saudi Arabia in particular is to
petroleum, southern Africa, and
specifically the Republic of South
Africa, is to nonfuel minerals.
2
by
Gene H. Hogberg
This heavily mineralized region
geologists have termed "High
Africa."
It
stretches from Shaba
province in Zaire southward into
South Africa's Transvaal prov–
ince, with its fabulously rich
golden reef.
It
is no exaggeration to call this
region, reported
Business Week
in its January 19, 1980, issue,
"the Persian Gulf of minerals,"
with South Africa as its "Saudi
Arabia."
In the case of four strategic:
minerals- chromite, manganese,
vanadium and platinum-the So-
viet Union would become the
dominant supplier if South Africa
were ever forced out of the
world market , either through
interna! strife, or by the lever of
economic sanctions applied
against the Pretoria govern–
ment-a threat often raised in
the United Nations. (By anotber
quirk of geography South Africa
and the Soviet Union are leading
suppliers- in sorne cases virtual–
ly the only suppliers-of severa!
key metals.)
This is precisely why the ring
of "Communist liberated" na-
The
PLAIN TRUTH