British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 980

CHAPTER XXV.
(d) The right to mine may be conferred either by the grant of a mining right or of a mining lease. In order to qualify for such a right or lease the applicant must show sufficient capital and technical ability.

A mining right confers upon the holder the exclusive right to mine for a period of one year on specified lands for specified alluvial minerals and to take and dispose of such minerals obtained, subject to the payment of surface rent and royalties. A mining lease is granted for a period not exceeding thirty years subject to renewal under certain conditions for a longer period. It confers on the lessee the exclusive right to mine on specified lands and remove specified minerals on payment of surface rent and royalties.

Mining leases have been granted since 1930 in respect of rock salt (one) and sulphur (three).

(e) Quarry licences are required for all quarrying operations except by a person opening a quarry on his own lands for the purpose of obtaining therefrom for his own use, and not for sa1e, stone, gravel, sand or clay. These licences are issued by the District Administration against fees, subject to evidence that the owner of the land has given consent to the applicant. The number of licences issued and in force in 1944 was 1,94 7, including four for gypsum.

17. The most important source of minerals in Palestine is the Dead Sea. This sea once extended far up the Jordan and 'Araba valleys; but, with the change from the pluvial to the present day climate, there has been a shrinkage of the lake to its present volume, with precipitation of some of the salts and concentration of others. The brines of many inland Jakes are salts of several acid radicles, but in the Dead Sea chloride and bromide alone exist. There is reason to believe that the potassium chloride and magnesium bromide which exist in the hot .springs at Tiberias , together with other salts below the surface of Lake Tiberias and in the valley of the Zerqa, have been the main sources of the Dead Sea deposits. The density of the brine and the amount of salts increases with depth. At the surface there is salt, 7%; potassium chloride, 1%; magnesium bromide, 0.45% and magnesium chloride, 11 % : at 250 feet the amounts are 81/2, l1/2, 0.7 and 17% respectively. The total amount of potash is thought to be not less than 2,000 million tons; of magnesium bromide, 900 million tons.

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