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The economy of Banaba and Nauru has been almost wholly dependent on phosphate, which has led to environmental disaster on these islands, with 80% of the islands' surface having been strip-mined. The phosphate deposits were virtually exhausted by 2000, although some small-scale mining is still in progress on Nauru. Mining ended on Banaba in 1979.
Phosphate mining, Nauru, 1919. Since the early 1900s, Nauru has been mined for phosphorus by many countries, resulting in devastating destruction of the land. As much as 80% of the island is unusable due to phosphorus mining, which has left exposed coral pinnacles that leave the land useless and uninhabitable. [8]
1940 map of Nauru showing the extent of the phosphate mined lands. Mining operations on Nauru began in 1906, at which time it was part of the German colonial empire. The island had some of the world's largest and highest quality deposits of phosphate, a key component in fertiliser, making it a strategically important resource on which agriculture in Australia and New Zealand depended.
Water is brought to Nauru as ballast on ships returning for loads of phosphate. [6] Fresh water can be found in Buada Lagoon, and also in some brackish ponds at the escarpment base in Ijuw and Anabar in the northeast. [7] [8] There is an underground lake called Moqua Well in Moqua Caves in the southeast of the island. [9]
An aerial image of Nauru in 2002 from the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program. Regenerated vegetation covers 63% of land that was mined. [3] Nauru is a raised coral atoll positioned in the Nauru Basin of the Pacific Ocean, on a part of the Pacific Plate that formed at a mid-oceanic ridge at 132 Ma.
Typical Topside landscape as a result of phosphate mining Topside is the name given to the high plateau that comprises the inland portion of the Pacific island nation of Nauru . Its geography is characterized by calcium carbonate pinnacles that make the land unsuitable for agriculture or forestry .
Republic of Nauru Phosphate Corporation This page was last edited on 15 June 2023, at 17:28 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution ...
The Nauru Rehabilitation Corporation is a state-owned enterprise established by the Republic of Nauru in May 1999, following the passing of the Nauru Rehabilitation Corporation Act in July 1997. Its primary mission is to rehabilitate land destroyed by the phosphate industry , both before and after its independence, making them once again ...