The most important Cuban mineral economic resource is nickel. Cuba has the second largest nickel reserves in the world after Russia. Sherritt International, a Canadian energy company, operates a large nickel mining facility in Moa, Cuba. Another leading mineral resource is cobalt, a byproduct of nickel mining operations. Cuba ranks as the fifth largest producer of refined cobalt in the world.
Recent oil exploration has revealed that the North Cuba Basin could produce approximately 4.6 billion barrels (730,000,000 m³) to 9.3 billion barrels (1,480,000,000 m³) of oil. As of 2006, Cuba has now started to test-drill these locations for possible exploitation.
