“Billions of dollars and tens of thousands of mining jobs”
The development of the sector and the intensification of extraction will induce the development of the chemical, metallurgical and electronic industries. They will generate billions of dollars in foreign currency gain and the creation of tens of thousands of jobs.
The figures put forward yesterday by the Minister of Mines Mohamed Arkab, during his visit to the airwaves of the National Radio, prefigure a commitment of the public authorities to stir up the earth and leave the wait-and-see posture that has prevailed until then. It was time. Through mining resources, there are real prospects for relaunching economic activity, golden ambitions for Algeria.
They are at a very advanced stage, the gold deposits of Hoggar and that of Tiririne – Hanane (Tamanrasset) may, according to the Minister’s forecasts, reach during this year 2021, a production of 250 kg / gold. An amount which represents a return in foreign currency of 50 to 60 million dollars without counting the revival of industrial activity in this southern region without counting the royalties and the taxes which will garner the State.
But the Algerian subsoil is not made only of gold. It is full of other minerals. By neglect or lack of vision, mining activities have been oriented towards aggregates and construction materials, while high value-added products are timidly participating in development: zinc-lead, barite, bentonite, bleaching earth, calcium carbonate , etc.
However, Algeria has more than 20 mines among the most important in the world whose exploitation will provide more than 30 basic mineral raw materials for the processing industries while the country bears a heavy bill annually for the import of 500,000 tons of raw materials.
Take for example barite, a mineral very popular in the pharmaceutical industry whose price per kilo exceeds 80,000 DA, but is under-exploited in our country. Local barite production barely meets 40-50% of the needs of the national market. This mineral should not be neglected for the benefit of course of importation. The analysis of some import figures of mining products shows that several products have been imported while resources do indeed exist on the national territory, such as marble and decorative stones.
($ 32 million), calcium carbonate ($ 22 million), granites ($ 12 million), refractory clays and clays ($ 13 million), barite (nearly $ 10 million), gravel and crushed stones
($ 1 million), natural sand ($ 500,000), etc. Many
other “basic” products were imported: natural sand, lime, gravel and crushed stones, salt, etc.
Another chapter “construction materials” and the item “natural or processed dimension or building stones (marble, travertines, alabaster, écaussine, granites, sandstone, etc.)” is estimated at more than 123 million dollars.
Since his arrival at the head of state, President Tebboune has decided to put an end to this “gratuitous squandering of hundreds, even billions of dollars” by importing mining products which exist in quantity and quality in our country. Thus, it proceeded to the implementation of a policy of intensification of the valuation of mineral resources. Relegated to the background, the mining sector has always been linked either to industry or to energy.
From now on, it is an autonomous ministry, in its own right, headed by Mohamed Arkab. It must be admitted that the latter’s task is not easy, especially since he must remain unmoved in the face of the assaults of a lobby carpeted in the rubble.
How not to talk about a lobby when we hear surreal figures that totally distort mining data in Algeria, or even mislead public opinion. We must be clear: there was never any question of replacing the rent from hydrocarbons by mines, but the latter can make a substantial contribution, in particular the value chain that they will create.
From there to speak of an export of 135 billion dollars in mining products by 2030, is an unfathomable aberration. The only way for the minister to block the road to these harmful fabrications is to tie up a good communication strategy with serious and quality publications.
This is the only way to protect the mining sector from countless predators and to orient it towards greater yield of added value and control of the market.