THE DEAD SEA

Otago Witness, Issue 3855, 31 January 1928, Page 9

THE DEAD SEA

A RICH BRITISH TREASURE FIELD.

The vast mineral resources of the Dead Sea have been awarded to a British syndicate, and this, some British editors note with pride, ends the prolonged struggle between powerful British, American, and European interests to obtain the “ most coveted prize in the way of development concessions that has been competed for ini modern times.” The negotiations between the concession seekers, the British' Colonial Office and the Palestine and Transjordan Governments, we are informed by the London Sunday Times, have been in pi ogress for many months, and it quotes a special correspondent as saying: “No greater commercial enterprise in natural resources has, it is safe to say, been consummated within recent years than that which now gives to a British corporation control of one of the world's biggest and most valuable stretches of untapped ricl.es. “ The story of how it comes within the control of British brains • nd British capital is very interesting. Tears ago greet scientists and chemists were made aware of the tremendous potentialities of the Dead Sea, and two years ago, or more, the Colonial Office put up to tender the rights to recover and exploit the hidden minerals of that great legion. “ The tenders submitted to the Crown agents on the specified date, October 31. 1925, were, however, all found t' be unsatisfactory, and were rejected. Subsequently, however, less formal negotiations were opened up. They were veiled

in much secrecy, but it has beer known for months that the parties principally concerned were a European company with big Russian interests, an American concern, and a British syndicate, which was generally understood to be Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd. These negotiations have now ended in an understanding between the Colonial Office and the British syndicate.”

Th. earliest negotiations began, it is recalled by this informant, when Sir Herbert Samuel was High Commissioner of Palestine, and the proposition is said to have had his complete apptoval. More recently Lord Plumer’s Administration has taken up the matter, a->- has overcome what difficulties existed with the Pales’ ine Government. It is further related that:

“ The expert examiners, including the geologist o’ the Palestine Government, who conducted the investigation as to the chemical resources of the Dead Sea, estimated the quantities of salts deposited there as follows:

Millions of Metric Tons Potassium chloride . . . . 2,000 Magnesium bromide .'. . . 980 Sodium chloride .. .. 11,900 Magnesium chloride . . . . 2'2,000 Calcium chloride . . . . 6,000

“ For practical purposes, it is said, the supply of potash may be considered inexhaustible, and this is the product which makes the Dead Sea valuable from a commercial stai dpoint. “ Not the least important aspect of the allocation of the development work te a British corporation is the effect it is likely to have upon industry, following the demand for machinery and plant with which to conduct the exploitation; while it will give a much-needed stimulus to agriculture by supplying fertilisers at prices a good deal nearer the present capacity of the farmer to pay.” Another correspondent of this London weekly advises us that potash may prove Palestine’s making, for it is at present a miserably poor country. Despite all its holy places, its tourists, and its oranges it is described as being without that essential to national prosperity, a “ basic industry ” to form the backbone of its finances. We read then: “ The concession for the exploitation of the inexhaustible potash deposits in the brackish waters of the Dead Sea, and

the problems which the concessionaires have to solve connected with its production, transport, and marketing are filling all Palestine with interest and hope. The simplest of these problems is the actual production of the potash. “ Tests have proved that the percentage of the chemical in Dead Sea brine taken from a given depth is constant, and it is an easy operation to pump it ashore. In the next stage Nature steps in with a helping hand. The sun-baked northern shore of the Dead Sea is dead flat and composed of non-absorbent clay, which forms ready-made bottoms for the vast evaporatiing pans into which the brine will be pumped. “Nor does Natuie stop there. The Jordan Valley is 800 ft below sea level, and one of the hottest places in the world. The sun unaided will do the evaporating, and such is its intensity that estimates of output may be calculated on a basis of four, and possibly five, complete processes yearly. “ But having done so much Nature withdraws her helping hand. The heat which so conveniently assists the evaporation processes puts formidable physical strain on the human elements which have to supervise them. “ Theirs will be a severe test of endurance, but they will learn to survive Jordan conditions as heartily as did the British troops in Allenby’s final campaign of 1918; and, like the troops, they will daily be helped by the one saving grace of the Dead Sea —the comparatively cool south breeze which during all but the worst months of the year blows off the waters for at least half of the working hours of each day. “ The second problem is the transport of the product to the Mediterranean seaboard. Palestine has two harbours — Jaffa and Haifa—neither of them at

present good, neither connected by rail with the Dead Sea. From the evaporating pans to Jaffa is some 80 miles, 85 by road, and the remainder by the Judean railway. In the early stages of the potash developments transport must be by way of Jaffa. “ There is a wonderful and exciting Italian-like road (incidentally it was remade in 1897 by the Turks in honour of the ex-Kaiser’s famous Near Eastern tour), which rises 3700 ft in 35 miles from the submarine Dead Sea levels to railhead at Jerusalem. There the.potash must be transferred from lorry to rail for the stage to Jaffa, where it must be further twice handled—rail to lighter, lighter to steamer —before it departs for the markets of the world. The Jerusa-lem-Jaffa route is at the moment Hobson’s choice; but despite its extravagance and awkwardness so cheaply can the potash be produced at the Dead Sea that its price oh board the steamer at Jaffa is still commercially competitive after four handlings. “ The development of Haifa as the'port .of Palestine will radically change matters. A new harbour has -.'.ready, been voted, with deep-sea berths and modern rail and wharf appliances and there is a railway through the plain of Jezreel to Beisan and Damascus. Beisan is at the northern head of the Jordan Valley, and conveniently close to the Rutenberg electric power stations which are being erected just south of the Sea of Galilee to harness the Jordan.”—Literary Digest.