British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 981

CHAPTER XXV.

18. The high temperature and air density in the Dead Sea depression are favourable to a rapid rate of evaporation and this has enabled the recovery of potassium chloride and other salts to be undertaken on a commercial scale. The brine from the Dead Sea is pumped into several series of evaporating pans and by a process of crystallisation in stages potassium chloride is separated from the other salts. Palestine Potash Ltd. have treatment plants at both the north and south ends of the Dead Sea and the brief statement of annual production given below indicates the development of the undertaking since its inception.

Potassium chloride

year 1992 isss 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 l942 1943 1944

10,000 tons upproximately

Quantities larger than in previous year 19,229 tons

21,087 tons

29,087 tons

47,496 tons

63,527 tons

88,961 tons

101,607 tons

1041237 tons

93, 749 tons 105,050 tons

19. Apart from the mineral resources of the Dead Sea, which are already being exploited under the concession granted to Palestine Potash Ltd.,* Palestine is a country exceptionally poor in minerals.

20. There are no metallic minerals of economic importance and indeed, with the exception of a manganese deposit and some slight copper mineralization in the Aqaba region, there are not even any occurrences of academic or mineralogical interest. The tonnage of 111a11ganese ore available has not been fully determined but it is not likely that the deposit is one of major magnitude and its inaccessibility and other factors render the prospects of its successful working somewhat doubtful.

21. The position as regards non-metallic minerals is also not promising. A sulphur deposit at Gaza has been practically worked out and the prospects of the resumption of operations are poor.
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* See paragraph 11 of this chapter and also paragraph 151(i) of the Survey of Industry (section 4 of chapter XIII).

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