Discover Algeria | Press area | Contact  
English Français
Registration
English Français

December 4, 2024 | 1 month ago

  • More options

    Share on LinkedIn
    Share on Twitter

Zinc and lead deposit in Béjaïa: Arkab reassures expropriated landowners that they will receive fair and satisfactory compensation

The Minister of State, Minister of Energy, Mines and Renewable Energies, Mohamed Arkab, on Tuesday reassured landowners expropriated from their land for the Amizour-Tala Hamza lead and zinc deposit, which has been maturing since 2020, that they will receive satisfactory, fair and equitable compensation.

Algeria Invest
Legal Notices | Terms of Services
news-detail

"We're totally at ease, and we're not worried about revising the level of compensation," he declared to representatives of civil society, who met in the late afternoon at Tala-Hamza, 15 km south-west of Bejaia, to submit their grievances and reaffirm their total support for the project, which, according to the Minister, "is of major importance" and is being closely monitored.

"At the last Cabinet meeting, the President of the Republic, Mr Abdelmadjid Tebboune, instructed me to ensure that the project would only go ahead once compensation had been paid to the last of the expropriated landowners," he said, according to the APS agency.

He stressed that the project, "beyond its potential, is likely to help set up an economic hub, dedicated to processing industries, using zinc and lead as the basic raw materials", calling on the local population to support it, as "the deposit holds great promise".

Following in her footsteps, the director of WMZ (Western Mediterranean Zinc), an Algerian-Australian joint venture which holds the mining permit, explained at length the qualities of this deposit, one of the 12 largest in the world.

The deposit has an exploitable reserve of 24 million tonnes per year, and with the depletion of several seams in various parts of the world, the Amizour deposit is poised to become a pivotal one, especially as it will be exploited using innovative technology (descending backfill chambers), and advanced non-polluting techniques, she stated.

The deposit is expected to start production as early as 2026, coinciding with the end of the expropriation-compensation process and the installation of a processing plant for the two minerals.

December 4, 2024 | algeria-logo

  • More options

    Share on LinkedIn
    Share on Twitter
Subscribe to the economic newsletter