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Algeria
Minerals
Algeria's nonfuel minerals were used extensively as raw material
for domestic manufacturing, but some, such as high-grade iron
ore, phosphate, mercury, and zinc, have also been exported since
the early 1970s. The state mining and prospecting corporation,
the National Company for Mineral Research and Exploration (Société
Nationale de Recherches et d'Exploitations Minières), was established
in 1967. As a result of the government's decentralization policy,
the company was restructured in 1983 into separate production
and distribution entities. The most important of these were an
iron ore and phosphate company known as Ferphos, which had three
production units and a port complex at Annaba, and another company
called Erem that specialized in conducting mineral research at
Boumerdas on the Mediterranean Sea and Tamanrasset in the south
(see
fig. 7).
Iron ore is found at Beni Saf in the northwest and the Ouenza
and Bou Khadra region near the eastern border. Production levels
have tended to vary significantly over the years, fluctuating
between 1 million and 2 million tons between the early 1970s and
the early 1990s. The deposits at Ouenza represent 75 percent of
total production and have been exported primarily to Italy and
Britain. However, there are massive reserves of medium-grade ore
at Gara Djebilet, near Tindouf in the west. These deposits of
an estimated 2,000 million tons of medium-grade ore have been
said to be the largest in the Arab world. The most significant
zinc deposits have been found at the mountain of El Abed near
the Algerian-Moroccan border and at Kherzet-Youssef in the Sétif
region. Lead is also mined at El Abed and Kherzet-Youssef.
The large phosphate deposits at Djebel Onk in the northeast have
been mined since the early 1960s; phosphate rock output reached
1.3 million tons in 1988. The total was almost evenly divided
between export (primarily to France and Spain) and local consumption
or processing at the Annaba fertilizer plant, approximately 350
kilometers away. Most major mines are linked by rail to Algeria's
ports. Djebel Onk phosphate mines near the Tunisian border, as
well as the Ouenza iron ore mines, are linked by electric rail
line to Annaba. Zinc and lead mines at El Abed near the Moroccan
border in the west are linked to Oran.
Data as of December 1993
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