Editing Orinoco (section)

== Economic activity ==
The river is navigable for most of its length, and [[dredging]] enables ocean ships to go as far as [[Ciudad Bolívar]], at the confluence of the [[Caroní River]], {{convert|435|km|mi}} upstream. River steamers carry cargo as far as [[Puerto Ayacucho]] and the Atures Rapids.

=== El Florero iron mine ===
In 1926, a Venezuelan mining inspector found one of the richest [[iron ore]] deposits near the Orinoco delta, south of the city of San Felix on a mountain named ''El Florero''.  Full-scale mining of the ore deposits began after [[World War II]], by a conglomerate of Venezuelan firms and US steel companies.  At the start in the early 1950s, about 10,000 tons of ore-bearing soil was mined per day.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=GtkDAAAAMBAJ&dq=popular+mechanics+July+1932+airplane&pg=PA142 "Venezuela's Magnetic Mountain"] ''Popular Mechanics'', July 1949</ref>

=== Tar sands ===
The Orinoco River deposits also contain extensive [[tar sands]] in the [[Orinoco Belt|Orinoco oil belt]], which may be a source of future oil production.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Forero |first=Juan |date=1 June 2006 |title=For Venezuela, A Treasure In Oil Sludge |newspaper=The New York Times |volume=155 |issue=53597 |pages=C1–C6 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/business/worldbusiness/01oil.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220134004/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/business/worldbusiness/01oil.html |archive-date=20 December 2016 |url-status=live |df=dmy }}</ref>