By Bisola Adeyemo
Algeria has signed its first integrated mining and fertilizers production project with Chinese companies.
Algeria’s energy giant, Sonatrach, disclosed in a statement on Tuesday. citing that the Algeria fertilizers production project has the target of an annual production capacity of 5.4 million tons of fertilizers.
The signing between the two countries was done in an agreement to establish a joint venture for an integrated phosphates project with an investment budget of 7 billion U.S. dollars, Algeria’s energy giant.
Under the new deal, the Algerian group Asmidal, a subsidiary of Sonatrach, and mining firm Manal agreed with the Chinese companies Wuhuan Engineering and Tian’An Chemical to launch a joint venture Algerian Chinese Fertilizers Company, with 56 percent of the shares owned by the Algerian party and the remaining 44 percent by the two Chinese firms.
The project will exploit the phosphate deposit in the Bled El Hadba and Djebel Onk mine in the easternmost province of Tebessa, transform the product into fertilizer, and establish facilities in the port of the eastern province of Annaba to facilitate export.
The project is expected to generate some 12,000 jobs during the construction phase, and 6,000 direct jobs and 24,000 indirect jobs once the project starts production.