CAIRO – 25 May 2023: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi inaugurated Thursday the Quartz Industrial Complex at Ain Sokhna, and that consists of five factories that had been built to process the output of a quartz mine in Marsa Alam in the Red Sea governorate with an annual capacity of 140,000 tons each.
Head of the Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority Yasser Ramadan said that the reserves of the quartz mine in Marsa Allam’s Marwa Al Sowaiqat amounts to 3.5 million tons.
The cost of the quartz complex is €80 million, and it is the first of its kind in the world, as it carries out all the processing phases of the mineral. It is also the only quartz plant in Africa and the Middle East.
A video was streamed explaining the process, indicating that quartz rocks get crushed into pieces sized between 3 and five centimeters, and again into millimeters, then into micro millimeters. The material is later turned into a paste, after adding certain substances, to be used is producing hard quartz slabs.
Italian ambassador to Cairo lauded the fruitful economic partnership with Egypt, saying that the two Italian companies that invested in the quartz complex would take part in other projects in the mining sector in the country.
The project created 2,600 direct and indirect jobs. Also, a number of engineers, and technicians got training in Italy.
The ambassador underscored that Italy is the third largest foreign investor in Egypt with €6 billion through 1,200 large, medium, and small companies in the sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, and food industries.
Furthermore, a plant will be established to produce bioquartz at $70 million with an annual capacity of 60,000 tons, in addition to another for glass sand. Another major in-progress project in the mining sector is building plants to process the output of a copper mine in South Sinai in collaboration with an English company.
Moreover, the head of the Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority stated that there are plans to establish a silicone processing factory with an annual capacity of 60,000-100,000 tons, and another for polycrystalline silicone with an annual capacity of 10,000 tons. The projects would be implemented in four phases with a total cost of $700 million.
President Sisi commented, addressing the public, saying, “I know the cost of projects may seem high but look at the benefits of substituting imports, saving billions...adding value to the economy by processing raw material, especially that our [natural] resources are not very big…Mind that we import food in billions while introducing factories costs just tens of millions.”
The president urged the Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority to boost its efforts with promoting investments in the mining sector, and urged the private sector to hurry and not miss investment opportunities.
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