Nauru being one of the phosphate rock islands in the Pacific Ocean has an economy that is primarily dependent on the mining of phosphates.
Nauru mining therefore fundamentally refers to the mining of phosphates that is found is large quantities in the island.
Nauru mining is an activity that has been coming down the years. An occupation that had begun in the early years of 1900 with the discovery of phosphates in the island and which still continues, mining in Nauru forms the basic occupation of the natives of the country. The mining of phosphates in Nauru is carried on mostly in the interior regions of the island as the phosphate content occurs in the central zone of Nauru.
Mining in Nauru had been under the simultaneous control of the colonizers and the colonized. Germans, Australians, British, New Zealanders and the people of Nauru had all been engaged in phosphate mining in Nauru. Such extensive mining for almost a century has led to serious environmental hazards in Nauru. At the same time the reduction in the mineral content is resulting in an economic stagnation as phosphates is the major and only source of income for Nauru.
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