FACTBOX: Natural resources and investors in Mauritania

(Reuters) - Mauritanian soldiers overthrew elected President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi in a coup on Wednesday and announced the formation of a military-led ruling council in the northwest African Islamic state.

Below is a list of some of Mauritania's major natural resources and the firms with investments in them.

OIL

Mauritania began producing crude oil in early 2006, forecasting output of 75,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the offshore Chinguetti field first opened by Australia's Woodside and now operated by Malaysia's Petronas.

Difficulties extracting oil have resulted in Chinguetti's output falling below 15,000 bpd, but other firms are prospecting in the country.

French oil major Total sold a 20 percent stake in its Taoudenni permit to Qatar Petroleum International in April this year, a month after selling another 20 percent to Algerian oil and gas grup Sonatrach in March. Total is also the operator.

London-listed Tullow Oil holds interests in eight blocks offshore Mauritania. Since 2000, over 30 exploration, appraisal and development wells have been drilled.

GAS

In June, RWE Dea, the upstream arm of German utility group RWE bought a 30 percent interest from operator Repsol YPF in onshore blocks in the Taoudeni Basin, which is expected to contain a high potential for gas.

IRON ORE

Iron ore miner Societe Nationale Industrielle et Miniere (SNIM), 78-percent owned by the state, produced 11.8 million metric tons of ore in 2007 and posted record sales of $557 million, thanks in large part to strong Chinese demand.

ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel maker, signed a deal in January with SNIM to develop the El Agareb iron ore mining project.

Separately, Qatari state-owned Industries Qatar paid $375 million last November to take a 49.9 percent stake in the al-Qalb al-Og project (sometimes transcribed from Arabic as Guelb El Aouj) in northern Mauritania, due to begin production in 2010.

Tazadit 1, a third SNIM joint venture, with China's state-owned Minmetals, expects production of 2.5 million metric tons by 2010.

(Compiled by Daniel Magnowski in Dakar; Editing by Alistair Thomson)