info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
Image from aawsat.com
The Tunisian government is looking to raise revenues from mining activities, mainly the strategic phosphate sector, and plans to reach about 5 million tons of crude phosphate production, of at least a 30 percent increase in production.
Tunisia is expected to allocate about $47.1 dollars of investments for the phosphate sector only, in order to complete the technical studies of “Tozeur – Nefta” project and complete projects Meknassy and Umm al-Khashab, all of which are new phosphate mines that may contribute in the coming years to supporting local production and restoring Tunisia’s status in global markets.
Phosphate production hit a record of 4.1 million tonnes at the end of 2019, an increase of 46% compared to 2018.
The Ministry of Industry and SMEs stated on its Facebook page that the average annual production of phosphate was 3.6 million tonnes during the period 2017-2019, compared to an average of 3 million tonnes for the period 2011-2016, i.e. an improvement of 20%.
The Department of Industry reported that "the average daily production of phosphate has been 15 thousand tonnes in the last five months", estimating that "production will exceed 6 million tonnes as an annual average in the coming period", if we maintain the same upward trend of production.
The Meknassi mine in Sidi Bouzid, which started production in early 2019, will have a production of 600 thousand tonnes by the end of this year.
