THEAPARTHEIDERA
grated. South Africa possessed a distinctive place in it as the producer of a
wide range ofvaluable minerals, which accounted for about three-quarters
of South Africa's foreign exchange earnings. In 1979, according to the U.S.
Bureau of Mines, besides producing 60 percent of the world's annual sup-
ply of gold, South Africa produced significant quantities of four minerals
that were essential for Western industry and defense: 47 percent of the
world's platinum group of metals (which are used as catalytic agents for
refining petroleum and for reducing automobile emissions) and 33 percent
of the world's chromium, 21 percent of the world's manganese, and 42
percent of the world's vanadium (some of which are indispensable in the
production of steel).South Africa was known to contain vast reservesof all
those minerals. And South Africa was still the world's major producer of
gem diamonds and a producer of significant quantities of asbestos, coal,
copper, iron, nickel, phosphates, silver, uranium, and zinc."?
The South African economy was extremely attractive to American and
European business and defense interests. In 1948, Britain, the former colo-
nial power, had far the largest foreign stake in the South African economy,