Despite being on an island, the country of Taiwan has a very rich collection of minerals to be found underneath its soil. Multiple metallic native minerals are mined throughout the nation; one of the most well-known being the element "Au", also known as gold. All four of Taiwan's main gold deposits are located in mountains, with three of them being solely within the Taiwanese Central Mountain Range. The fourth is found on Pingfeng Mountain and also serves as a hiking spot and tourist attraction, but isn't the only gold mine attraction in the country. One of the largest gold mines in Taiwan and the world was the Jinguashi mine, which now serves as a gold museum after most of its reverses were drained by the Japanese occupation during WWII. Another metal that was harvested by Taiwan in the Jinguashi province was Cu, also known as copper. Copper was mined on the island consistently from years before the Japanese occupation to more than fifty years past it. However, after the value of copper plummeted in 1987, the copper mining operations in the area ceased and the mineral hasn't been mined on large scale to this day (Owuor, 2019).
Large amounts of non-metallic minerals were also mined in Taiwan for use worldwide, one of which being the infamous Asbestos. Starting in 1937, Taiwan managed to produce around 820 metric tons of Asbestos per year, a lot of which was exported to foreign nations after Japan's occupation. The major deposits of Asbestos are found in Fongtian in the Hualien County of Taiwan, but production stopped after the health risks of the substance were brought to light (Owour, 2019). These elements are/were valuable in Taiwan but are also found in many other places as well. However, Taiwan does have reserves of a mineral in its borders that is fairly rare almost everywhere else. This mineral is known as Monazite, not to be confused with the mineral categorization, and it possesses some very interesting qualities. To start, Monazite contains around 50% of rare-earth elements including lanthanum, cerium, and thorium; the last of which is radioactive (Monazite Meaning, 2023). In addition, despite being made up of multiple minerals, Monazite is actually still a mineral itself and not a rock. A potential reason for this is that Monazite can grow as an accessory on igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. In Taiwan, this mineral can be found in sandbars off a specific coast between two rivers, the Jhoushuei river, and the Bajhang river (Liao, 2019).
While spectacular geologic pieces, to isolated Taiwan the main value of these minerals is their export value and potential profit; which is understandable to keep the country afloat. The gold mined in Taiwan is often put into electronic devices such as computers or phones which are shipped out to countries like China and the U.S. In addition, aluminum is also a large export of Taiwan not yet mentioned here. The most common form of this aluminum is partially finished constructs that are completed after being exported to other countries (Taiwan’s exports of aluminium semi-finished products to US jump 520% YoY in three-month period, 2019). However, the sadly more prevalent part of Taiwan's mineral exports is what they used to be able to export and cannot do so now. Despite its variety of minerals, it has a large hold on none of them in modern times, such as Taiwan's gold. Other materials it does have large reserves of just aren't valuable anymore such as copper or asbestos. Due to it being an island country Taiwan imports materials much more than it exports; which could raise problems in the future, especially for its sovereignty.
Cited Sources:
Owuor, Sophy, "What Are The Major Natural Resources Of Taiwan?", WorldAtlas, August 22, 2019, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-are-the-major-natural-resources-of-taiwan.html
Liao, George, "Business Weekly: A reserve of rare earth minerals keeps Taiwan’s hope of developing nuclear weapons alive", Taiwan News, March 6th, 2019, https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3718227
"Monazite Meaning", Vedantu, March 17th, 2023, https://www.vedantu.com/geography/monazite
"Taiwan’s exports of aluminium semi-finished products to US jump 520% YoY in three-month period", AlCircle, June 25th, 2019, https://www.alcircle.com/news/taiwans-exports-of-aluminium-semi-finished-products-to-us-jump-520-yoy-in-three-month-period-47235