British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 982

CHAPTER XXV.

Gypsum is being worked in the northern part of the Jordan valley and production has shown an upward trend during the war years, the bulk of the output being absorbed by the Nesher Cement works. Before the war there was considerable competition from Cyprus gypsum which could be obtained at a lower price; whether the local product will be able to compete with Cyprus in the future remains to be seen. There are very large reserves of rock salt available from Jebel Usdum, at the south end of the Dead Sea; 1,181 tons were obtained in 1944; far larger quantities could be obtained if required. Salt is also obtained by the evaporation of sea water at Athlit" and as a by-product from the operations of Palestine Potash Limited. Building and road stone is in plentiful supply as are also sand and lime, the raw materials for the making of silicate bricks. Portland cement is produced east of Haifa by the Nesher Company.** Considerable beds of rock phosphate are known to exist in the region of Jericho, but these are of poorer quality and of less suitable physical character than those of TransJordan; so far, no satisfactory means of working them on an economic basis have been found. Small deposits of felspar have been worked during the last few years in the Aqaba region but the inaccessibility of the deposits and their relatively small size would preclude them from being of any great economic importance.

22. The quantities of minerals produced since 1930 to the end of 1944 are given in the table on the next page.
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* See paragraph 151 (vii) or chapter XIII.
** See paragraph 157 of chapter XIII.

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