But the economy has suffered, as raw materials or components (or workers) did not arrive, and goods (or crops or ores) could not be shipped out.
The result is growing interest in the use of rock-eating bacteria to extract metals from low-grade ores, mining waste or industrial effluent.Rock-eating bacteria such as Acidithiobacillus and Leptospirillum are naturally occurring organisms that thrive in nasty, acidic environments.
He thinks, though, that the expansion will not make much difference for many kinds of trades, such as bulk ores and grains, oil tankers or specialised refrigerator or chemical carrier ships.
His view is that it will take ages for the industry to crank production back up to its peak, when it was exporting ores worth $10 billion a year or so.
These minerals' ores would also be covered.
The only existing producer outside Asia not dependent on Chinese ores is Silmet, a rare-metal firm in Estonia, which says it is now besieged by eager customers.
Metal ores are hard on machinery, so every three weeks one of these giant metal parts must be shipped from Britain to a copper mine in Chile.
Clearly, there must be some limit to the amount of fossil fuels and metal ores that can be extracted from the earth: the planet, after all, has a finite mass.
And newer deposits tend to mix gold with other ores, so diversification will continue.Searching for the next gold mineMr Munk established a charitable foundation in 1992 and says he intends to leave his entire estate to charity.
In the substantial mining industry, the government for some years has insisted that foreign companies refine or process in Indonesia the minerals, such as copper, which they extract, rather than simply shipping ores and concentrates abroad.
But it is quite a gamble.Indonesia has few smelters, and earns $5 billion a year by exporting unprocessed minerals such as copper concentrate, nickel ores and bauxite.
