Kim Hung Ju, a department director of the State Resources Development Guidance Bureau, told KCNA that useful minerals were found in nearly 80 percent of the territory.

There are billions of tons of iron ores, including magnetite and limonite. It is easy to mine them as they are deposited near the crust of the earth.

The country has also large deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, cyanite, sillimanite, titanium, manganese, nickel, chrome and rutile.

Rare metallic minerals such as molybdenum, monazite, wolframite, beryl, zirconium and uranium are spread in different parts of the country.

In particular, rare earth minerals including fluorocarbonic cerium are inexhaustible in the country.

The country is also endowed with limestone, apatite, alunite, barite and other minerals used as raw materials in chemical and building materials industry, granite, marble, dolomite, phyllite and other natural stone resources and mica, asbestos, talc, diatomite, kaolin, bentonite and other nonmetallic minerals.

Deposits of magnesite and graphite are as large as billions of tons respectively.

High-caloric coal resources are distributed in different areas of the country to provide favorable conditions for the economic development.

Up to now hundreds of kinds of minerals have been discovered in the country.