Algeria has signed a $6bn joint venture deal with a Chinese consortium to expand a phosphate plant in the country's eastern Tebessa province. The agreement between Algerian state-run company Sonatrach, domestic firms Manal and Asmidal and Chinese state-owned CITIC Group is to expand output of the Bled El-Hadba mine from one million metric tonnes (mt) to 10 million mt a year, making it the largest economic project the country has seen in over a decade. Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said on Wednesday that he had approved the deal, which will see China build an alumina refinery at the site of the former French colony near Algiers.
Algeria has signed a $6bn joint venture deal with a Chinese consortium to expand a phosphate plant in the country's eastern Tebessa province. The agreement between Algerian state-run company Sonatrach, domestic firms Manal and Asmidal and Chinese state-owned CITIC Group is to expand output of the Bled El-Hadba mine from one million metric tonnes (mt) to 10 million mt a year, making it the largest economic project the country has seen in over a decade. Sonatrach will retain a 51% share in the project, which is scheduled to come online in 2022.