The Sudan Handbook

land &  WateR    55

tiang from the Duk Ridge to and from the floodplains of the Kidepo river.

The meeting of these two species with the reedbuck (Redunca redunca)

and Mongalla gazelle (Eudorcas albonotata), at the turning point of their

respective seasonal movements, is a spectacular event. There are indica-

tions, though, that the paths of the migrations are changing in response

to human activity. Southern Sudan is home to many rare species, such as

the giant eland (Taurotragus derbianus) and the shoe-bill stork (Balaeniceps

rex), the provincial symbol of greater Bahr al-Ghazal and now the symbol

of Lakes state. Other charismatic vertebrates have suffered considerably.

The elephant population, more than 150,000 in 1976, is a fraction of that

today. The northern white rhino is probably extinct in Sudan. Ivory,

one of the country’s principal exports in the nineteenth century, is now

subject to international prohibitions – but can still be found on sale in

the suqs of Omdurman.

Minerals

With the exception of oil, Sudan’s mineral resources seem mostly to be

spread around its borders. In the past, copper was mined in the far west

of Sudan, at the site known as Hofrat en Nahas; deposits remain, but

there has been no commercial working of these in recent times, and an

exploratory programme by a major international mining company was

abandoned in 1999, as it seemed that the reserves were not commercially

viable. In the Ingessana hills, in the east, there are deposits of chrome

ore. In the 1970s, chromium was produced locally, but today there is

only export of the ore itself; in 2006, Sudan produced 20,000 tonnes

of ore. The hills of eastern Sudan have a long tradition of gold working

which stretches back to antiquity. Commercial exploitation of this was

intermittent in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but since   1991    

there has been consistent production by a company majority-owned

by the Sudanese government. Production of gold may be falling; very

different figures are given by different sources: a recent government claim

that Sudan produces 20,000 kg of gold a year, much of it from artisanal

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors panning^ of^ alluvial^ gold,^ is^ well^ above^ other^ estimates,^ which^ put^ the^

(www.riftvalley.net).