2014 Minerals Yearbook MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA U.S. Department of the Interior December 2017 U.S. Geological Survey 10° W 0° 10° E 20° E 30° E 40° E 50° E 60° E 50° N 40° N E D I T M E R R A N E SYRIA A LEBANON ATLANTIC N S E A ISRAEL TUNISIA IRAQ (West Bank) IRAN OCEAN (Gaza) MOROCCO 30° N P E JORDAN R S ALGERIA IA KUWAIT N LIBYA EGYPT BAHRAIN GU SAUDI ARABIA LF Western Sahara R E D S E A QATAR UNITED ARAB OMAN EMIRATES 20° N YEMEN ARABIAN SEA GULF OF ADEN 10° N Base modified from ESRI ArcGIS online world countries (generalized) map data, 2017 Mercator Auxiliary Sphere projection World Geodetic System 1984 datum Figure 1. Map of the Middle East and North Africa region. The countries covered in this report are labeled on the map; bordering countries are shown in gray and not labeled. THE MINERAL INDUSTRIES OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA By Mowafa Taib, Waseem A. Abdulameer, Sinan Hastorun, Glenn J. Wallace, David R. Wilburn, and Thomas R. Yager The 20 countries and territories of the Middle East and per capita in the region was attributed to the Gulf Cooperation North Africa (MENA) region that are covered in this volume Council (GCC) countries, which had some of the highest include the following: Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, GDP per capita in the world owing to the wealth generated Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, by hydrocarbon exports and small populations. The rate of Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the West Bank growth of the GDP in the MENA region was 0.3% in 2014 and Gaza Strip, Western Sahara, and Yemen (fig. 1, facing compared with 0.1% in 2013 and 2.1% in 2012. The rates of page). The region covers an area of about 11.5 million square growth for individual countries within the region varied greatly, kilometers, or about 2.3% of the world’s total surface area. In with Bahrain, Iran, and the UAE achieving the highest rates of 2014, the MENA region was home to about 417 million people, economic growth and Iraq, Libya, and Syria having the lowest or 5.7% of the world’s population (table 1). rates of growth in 2014 (table 2). The hydrocarbon industry continued to be the main driver of Acknowledgments growth in the economies of the entire region, directly through the wealth it created in net petroleum-exporting countries and The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) acknowledges and indirectly through the infrastructure projects being built in most expresses its sincere appreciation to the Government agencies of the MENA countries, as well as through the remittances and international organizations listed below for providing of expatriates working in the GCC net-petroleum-importing mineral production statistics and basic economic data. countries, such as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. For mineral production statistics— Production of metals and industrial minerals was an important • Algeria—Ministry of Industry and Mines; component of the economy of Iran and Morocco; metal smelting • Egypt—Arab Fertilizer Association; also was an important part of the nonfuel economies of Bahrain, • Iraq—State Company of Geological Survey and Mining Egypt, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. For most of the (GEOSURV-IRAQ), Ministry of Industry and Minerals, and countries of the region, the value of trade continued to be driven Ministry of Oil; mainly by the exports of hydrocarbons to the world market. The • Israel—Department of Quarries and Mines of the Ministry economies of most of the oil-exporting countries in the region of Energy and Water Resources; were negatively affected by the lower international market prices • Jordan—Department of Statistics, Ministry of Energy and for crude oil during 2014 compared with those of 2013. Mineral Resources, and the Natural Resources Authority; The abundant supply of crude oil and natural gas and its • Kuwait—Central Statistical Office of the Ministry of Plan- geographic location, with easy access to ocean transportation, ning; continued to give the MENA region a competitive advantage • Morocco—Ministry of Energy, Mines, Water and the Envi- for developing energy-intensive mineral industries to produce ronment; aluminum, cement, crude steel, direct-reduced iron (DRI), • Oman—Ministry of Commerce and Industry; fertilizers, petrochemicals, and rolled steel. In 2014, crude steel • Saudi Arabia—Central Department of Statistics and Infor- trade was important for the region. Saudi Arabia, whose net mation of the Ministry of Economy and Planning, and Deputy imports of crude steel were 6.5 million metric tons (Mt), was Ministry for Mineral Resources of the Ministry of Petroleum the world’s 6th-ranked net importer of crude steel; Algeria, which and Mineral Resources; and imported 6.0 Mt of steel products, was the 8th-ranked; the UAE • United Arab Emirates—National Bureau of Statistics; and Egypt, whose net imports were 5.8 Mt each, were the world’s For basic economic and population data— 9th and 10th-ranked importers; and Iran, whose net imports of • International Monetary Fund, and crude steel were 3.7 Mt, was the world’s 13th-ranked net importer • The World Bank Group. of crude steel (World Steel Association, 2015, p. 27). In 2014, several MENA countries were under various General Economic Conditions levels of political instability and civil unrest in the aftermath of uprisings, which started in Tunisia in December 2010 and In 2014, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the MENA extended to Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen from 2011 region based on purchasing power parity was about $7.0 trillion, to the present. Libya, Syria, and Yemen, which were among which accounted for 6.4% of the world’s GDP. The region’s the countries that were most affected by armed conflicts, GDP per capita averaged $16,777, which was 11% higher than suffered significant economic losses owing to reductions in the world average of $15,034. The higher than average GDP their hydrocarbon production and exports. The armed conflict THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA—2014 48.1 between the Government and the self-proclaimed Islamic in 2013 (Ministère de l’Energie, des Mines, de l’Eau et de State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the second half of 2014 l’Environnement, 2015). disturbed Iraq’s petroleum production, exports, and refining In Oman, Royal Decree No. 49, which was issued in activities at the northern oilfields owing to several attacks on the September 2014, affirmed the establishment of the Public facilities and refineries in the cities of Baiji and Kirkuk. ISIL Authority for Mining (PAM) and its organizational system. captured the Mishraq State sulfur mine, which was undergoing a According to the Decree, PAM falls under the authority of $78 million rehabilitation and capacity expansion by Devco Inc. the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and was assigned to of the United States to increase its capacity to 500,000 metric monitor mineral industry activities, prepare plans and strategies tons per year (t/yr) of sulfur by 2015 (Gaven, 2014). relevant to the development of the mineral industry, and oversee In Syria, ISIL and other groups took control of some of the the country’s mineral policies (Times of Oman, 2015). natural gas fields and oilfields in the central and eastern parts of the country, which were operated by state-owned companies Exploration and their international partners. In September 2014, production at some state-owned and the two privately owned cement Local and international exploration companies explored for plants (Al-Badia Cement J.S.C. and Lafarge Cement Syria) was such nonfuel minerals as bauxite, copper, gold, lead, silver, stopped and employees were evacuated for security reasons and zinc in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Morocco, Oman, (Al-Badia Cement J.S.C., 2015, p. 14, 26; International Cement Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Yemen (table 3). State-owned and Review, 2015, p. 336). international oil companies explored for hydrocarbons in many The mining sector in Tunisia continued to be adversely of the countries in the region. Exploration activities continued affected by the ongoing civil unrest in the country, which in such countries as Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, and reduced phosphate rock and phosphate-based fertilizer Saudi Arabia. Sixty-five crude oil discoveries were reported in production by more than 50% in 2014 compared with that the MENA region in 2014, including Egypt (34), Algeria (15), of 2010. The stagnation in the mining sector since 2011 was Kuwait (7), Iraq (6), and Morocco, Oman, and Tunisia (1 each). attributed to the ongoing social tension and strikes (which Forty-two natural gas discoveries were reported in the MENA caused disturbances at phosphate rock production sites and on region in 2014, including Egypt (23), Algeria (17), and Morocco transportation routes) by locals rallying for employment and and the UAE (1 each) (Organization of Arab Petroleum compensation (Central Bank of Tunisia, 2015, p. 48–50). Exporting Countries, 2015, p. 20, 22). Despite political instability, the MENA region has strong In Egypt, Thani Stratex Resources Ltd. was focused on gold fundamentals for economic development, such as a large, mine development at the Wadi Kareem Block, which is located young population; abundant raw materials; and low production 45 kilometers (km) southwest of Marsa Alam, and at the Hodine costs. These factors are expected eventually to attract increased Block, which is located 45 km southwest of Bernice on the public and private investment into infrastructure and fuel and Red Sea coast in southeastern Egypt. Alexander Nubia Inc. nonfuel mineral industries, which would likely boost demand of Canada was developing the gold resources of the Arabian- for aluminum, cement, iron and steel, and other mineral Nubian Shield.