Minerals for Agricultural Industrialization |
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This is feasible provided that their profitability forecast proved positive by showing bright opportunities for cost reduction in context to the ever increasing competitive global market.
In this connection it is worthy to note that the Ethiopian Government is pursuing a policy capable of changing such situations in our industries manufacturing process. This is just to enable them use the locally produced minerals as cheap raw materials.
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Minerals for Food Self-Sufficiency |
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In this regard it is also appreciable once again to note the Governmental activity of the Coal-Phosphate-Fertilizer Complex Project. This project deals with utilization of coal, oil shale, phosphate, potash and sulphur to manufacture mainly urea fertilizer in the country. These minerals were discovered mainly by the Geological Surveys of Ethiopia and the Ministry of Mines, in north, and south western Ethiopia.
This goal can be achieved by expanding the use of fertilizer application. And this will maximize the advantage if we make use of our minerals for such purposes. For this reason it is found logical to describe our mineral resources in terms of their usage as a plant nutrient in soil.
Accordingly the primary nutrients( nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus) are the vast majority of fertilizer applied to soil. Nitrogen is indeed achieved from air whereas phosphorus is obtained from deposits of organic remains (bones) and phosphate mineral (apatite). Both sources of phosphate invariably need sulphuric acid to manufacture the super phosphate product, the commonly used fertilizer. Potassium is indispensable for plant growth, thus is required in a large quantity as much as phosphorus and nitrogen. With regard to this the mineral sylvaite (KCl) is the main source of potassium in the fertilizer industry. Besides potassium -magnesium sulphates are also important sources of potassium.
The major sources of sulphur in today�s fertilizer are ammonium sulphate, normal super phosphate, potassium sulphate, langbeinstg(K2SO4.2MgSO4) and gypsum (Carr, 1966). Besides ammonium thiosulphate (NH4)2S2O3) is widely used as the source of sulphur in the fluid fertilizer industry. It is produced by reacting SO2 and aqueous ammonia with elemental sulphur. In view of this, Ethiopia is uniquely endowed with all minerals essential to produce fertilizer locally as potash, sulfur, apatite, limestone, coal and gypsum, are the abundant mineral resources of the country.
Limestone is one of the abundantly available sedimentary rock in Ethiopia, and is presently used extensively to manufacture cement along with little application as an ornamental building stone. It can also be used to manufacture quicklime that is essential to produce calcium carbide and caustic soda. Calcium carbide is utilized to manufacture cyanide by combining it with nitrogen and also uses for preparation of acetylene by reacting calcium carbide with water. In addition to this, limestone is utilized for SO2 absorption, in steel industry, refractory, glass, paper and sugar industries. Back to Top |
E V A P O R I T E |
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On the basis of our present knowledge, industrial minerals are believed to have great potentials to improve the socio-economic development of Ethiopia. Most of these industrial minerals occur as evaporite deposits in the Denakil (Afar) depression, Afar National Regional State. The Afar depression lies where the three important rift systems intersects i.e., the Main Ethiopian Rift, the Red Sea Rift and the Gulf of Aden Rifts. During the Gulf of Aden rifting there had been a restricted marine invasion over the Afar depression which was subsequently isolated by the emergedDenakil horst due to the Red Sea Rifting. The consequent evaporation formed the evaporite beds in late Tertiary to Quaternary, consisting of important reserves of halite (rock salt), potash, gypsum and other salts showing consistent marine evaporite sequences.
Accordingly the Denakil depression is rich in industrial mineral resources such as (rock salt, potash, sulfur, gypsum etc.). Of all these mineral wealth the potash deposit had attracted some international mining companies for development even if the contrary happened. Presently a foreign mining company known as Hydro Agri International (HAI) has taken concession in 1997 to conduct prefeasibility study. However the unfortunate Ethio-Eritrean border conflict stopped all activities. In any case the prefeasibility study is expected to focus on getting access to the red Sea in view of the high transportation cost should Djibouti or Assab ports are envisaged. In deed constructing a new railway (about 90km) to Mersa Fatim, the most nearest Red Sea coast, is very economical to the company. |
P O T A S H |
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Over 96% of the world production of potash is used as fertilizer in agriculture. Roughly 6% growth in annual consumption of potassium is recorded between 1950 and 1980. It seems to do so since then although there is a lack of data to fill in accordingly.
The presence of an economic deposit of potash ore (sylvanite and carnalite ) near Dallol has been known in northern Afar, northeast Ethiopia since the twenties Century . Dallol is located in the Denakil depression, 150m below sea level at 14 degrees north of the equator. It is approximately 20km from the border with Eritrea and 90km from the Red sea. There are no roads of engineered standards, but only rough road which is about 160km from Mekale. The deposit lies on the western side of the basin close to the boundary of the rift, passing from which, the Ethiopian highlands began to rise up to above 2500m. Exploration work (Ralph.M(1960)) by Parsons Company proved the presence of two ore bodies of potash (Crescent and Musely) beneath the Dallol salt plain. The Crescent ore body is particularly suitable for open cast mining (Parson 1964) and experimental mining from the ore body was initiated for three years during 1964-1967 by the same company. The Crescent ore body is 12 million tons of which at the grade of 25% KCl, three million tons is said minable reserve (Parson 1966). The second ore body, Musely, has a total reserve of 173 million tons at a grade of 32%. The Musley ore body lies to the west and along margin to the salt plain, close to a large alluvial fan at the mouth of the Musely canyon. The succession begins with halite and lastly by magnesium and potassium salts. This sequence repeats and is enclosed by the upper and lower halite formations. In general the deposit consist of three layers of potash at an average thickness of 16m. The pilot mine, using conventional mining by shaft and gallery working, was affected by hazardous influx of water into the shaft and that incident led the company to evacuate. Presently there is a modern and advanced and less risky mining methods such as solution mining technique which is applicable to such types of deposit. New indications surfaced out recently that three borehole were drilled further to the east in the Denakil depression and encountered two layers of potash at 680m and 930m and presumed to be stratigraphically continues with the Musely Ore body. Therefore the total potential reserve of potash within the salt plain alone is estimated to reach several billion tons. Such a huge deposit of potash had long been known and many foreign companies were interested in developing it. However, all activities ceased for two consecutive decades following the command economy of the defunct socialist regime. Recently Hydro Agri International (HAI) has been interested in developing potash as a raw material for fertilizer production and took concession with the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1997. The concession is to explore further the potash reserves and to perform pilot mining operation to identify the mining potential with greater accuracy. However this has remained inactive due to the border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Back to Top |
C O A L |
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Coal is utilized for various applications among which the chief is in power stations for generating electricity (the main reason for USA to reject the Kiwotto treaty on reducing global warming). Besides, it is used for refining plants, production of briquettes, pulverized lignite and coke production. Furthermore coal and oil shale are essential raw materials to produce nitrogenous fertilizer. Accordingly it is time to consider coal and oil shale as an important sources of alternative energy to Ethiopia.
Coal and oil shale are therefore important mineral resource ready for investment. Back to Top |
G R A P H I T E |
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There are many reported occurrences of graphite mainly within the Precambrian basement. However quite a few were studied for a commercial purposes. In this regard graphite was studied by an integrated geological and geophysical explorations in Gara Gedesa, Moyale area, southern Ethiopia. In this particular place three prominent graphite bands extending for hundreds of meters with a width of 20-30m occur within the basement rock consisting of mafic-ultramafic, quartz-mica schist and associated intrusive rocks. The graphite was noted to be separated intermittently by quartz sericite schist. < Back to Top |
S U L F U R |
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Sulfur is chiefly used to produce sulfuric acid, the largest single application of the acid being in the production of phosphate fertilizers. Besides, a number of industrial applications are known such as in copper ore leaching, in rubber and plastic industries etc.. In Ethiopia, the Aluminum Sulfate and Sulfuric Acid Factory, situated in Melkassa, 130km east of Addis Ababa, is the only plant producing sulfuric acid. The factory is producing acid using imported sulphur even if plenty of sulphur deposits occur in Ethiopia. Currently, the factory�s production capacity is not fully employed due to the absence of a demanding market. Of course the rate of consumption of sulphuric acid is a measure of one country�s industrialization; hence the prevailing low consumption of sulphuric acid in Ethiopia reflects nothing but our low level of industrialization. For all that however it is not too distant in the future that the demand for more sulfuric acid will definitely increase as we are going to establish paper and fertilizer industries. For instance for the paper industry high production of sodium sulphate is required thus salt or soda ash will be mixed with sulfuric acid, to form sodium sulfate as the chief application of sodium sulphate is to manufacture paper pulp. Likewise the fertilier industry uses huge amount of sulphuric acid as indicated in this issue. Sulfur is found naturally in elemental form in subsurface deposits and also associated with gypsum and anhydrite and within salt domes. It is also found associated with volcano and hot spring as a result of sublimation formed by gaseous, fumerolic or hot springs activity near volcanic craters (which is either impregnated at shallow depth due to oxidation of hydrogen sulfide, or reaction of SO2 and HS- and water). Elemental sulfur is also sometimes recovered from crude oil. Sulfur in volcanic occurrences are generally small but are mined for they are locally important. Sulfur�s economic reserve is controlled by the prevailing prices and extraction technology. As a large quantity of hydrogen sulfide occurs within petroleum and oil shale, elemental sulfur is commonly recovered as byproduct in oil industries either in response to legislation or by processing mandate. Elemental sulfur from such byproducts supplies up to 40% of the world demand (~23 million tones) and a major treat for sulfur mining in the future. There are various sulfur deposits in the Danakil Depression and around Dofan deposit in the central rift area, and most of them are of volcanic origin formed by gasous or fumerolic activity around volcanic crater and hot springs.
The Zariga sulfur was exploited with a grade of 8-12% (Jelenc 1966). The Dallol company mined on small scale from 1951 to 1953 and SCIE Company too mined during 1944-1947 and 1949-1952. Considering the importance of fertilizer and paper industries, investment in sulphur mining in order to manufacture sulphuric acid within the country is a good opportunity for development. Back to Top |
S A L T (HALITE) |
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Presently there are two unequivocal potential sources of common salt in Ethiopia from two types of salt deposits. The first is rock salt and occurs in the salt plain, northwestern Ethiopia. Jelenc (1966) estimated the reserve of of rock salt within the plain to be more than three billion tons. Nevertheless this important salt deposit is not yet developed commercially apart from the traditional artisanal mining.
The evaporite consists chiefly of rock salt (halite, sodium chloride) with minor amount of carnalite (hydrated chloride of potassium and magnesium), sylvite (potassium chlorite) and gypsum (hydrated calcium sulphate). These extensive evaporite deposits are formed by evaporation of saline water which was originally part of the Red Sea, but later isolated and evaporated hence the name evaporite. The evaporite salt have variably sized beds mostly structureless, sometimes with parting, and often strongly distorted owing to flow. Texturally it appears massive to coarsely crystalline glass or sugary with a range of colours from colourless to white, orange, and red yellow or rarely purple. These colours manifest the type and level of associated impurities as carbonate, sulphate, clay and iron oxide minerals.
Rock salt is exploited in the form of bars (25cm by 30cm by 5cm, with a weight of 6 kg salt) and transport to the highlands by use of mules and Camels. Such activities in the Assale plain are undertaken daily by more than two thousands people who get engaged in producing rectangular rock salt bars ready for shipment. Accordingly salt is produced up to 30,000 tons of salt is annually produced from this site.
Other minor sources include salty springs originated from volcanic craters in many subordinate ponds of Afder, Emi, Krime, etc. in the southern Ethiopia and account for a small portion of artisanal mining of edible salt. There are also marshes near Adel, and hot springs near Mataka and salt filling fractures in the rocks of Adel series within the salt plain north east of Owan. This huge underdeveloped rock salt wealth gives a rewarding opportunity for prosperity to investors. Investors interested in production of table salt. It only requires introducing a mechanized small-scale industry with some kind of iodine treatment plant and getting rid of unwanted impurities. Furthermore, the Ministry of mines and energy is striving to achieve degree of independence from imported salt. In this connection it is appreciable to hear that a private investor is already licensed and to commission soon large scale salt production from the Afdera lake and another two in the same scale are in pipe line hence the domestic demand for table salt is therefore expected to be satisfied by local production and we hope that it will significantly contribute to the development of the Afar Region. Salt is also an important mineral product useful for tannery and chemical industry and cotton factories. Here are some facts about the Afdera lake. The Afdera lake brine composes cation Na+ , K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and anion Cl-, HCO3-, SO42-. The discharge from 40 springs have similar composition and the underlying succession of salts beds (halite) are presumed to supply cation and anion.
The traditional common salt produced from the Afdera lake is presumed to have a significant amount of iodine, nevertheless an industrial scale production of edible salt needs to have a complementary iodisation plant to fulfil the standard requirement. Normally Potassium Iodide is added to common salt as a preventive against goitre. Iodine is used for herbicide, fungicide, sterility, detergents, hermetical and food industry. The principal source of iodine is seawater and has a mean value of 58 nanogram per litre. Additional sources are from formation water, fluid inclusion and volcanic emanation. It also originates from fuel combustion, car exhaust. 20% of the daily requirement of iodine for human comes from the drinking water, whereas the remaining 80% is from food, such as fish, meat, and products. Drinking water iodine content range between 0.01 to 70 nanogram per litre. Normally River water contains 5nanogram per litre. Any thing less than 5ng per litre are associated with goitre. Country location closer to coastal areas is not affected from goitre with respect to the in land highlands. Back to Top |
F E L D S P A R |
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They are used mainly as a flux in the glass and ceramic industries and serve as a source of aluminium to improve the workability of molten glass.
Feldspar of a suitable grade is also mixed with clay and sand for the manufacturing of certain types of porcelain ware.
Generally a maximum of 0.1% of the ground feldspar must pass through a 325 mesh sieve. Regarding the sources of feldspar in Ethiopia is pegmatite as feldspar and quartz are the most abundant constituents of the muscovite bearing pegmatite of Kenticha.
Quarrying pegmatite for feldspar has not yet started despite its abundant occurrences in Ethiopia. Back to Top |
K A O L I N |
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The commercial name for kaolin(Al2O3.SiO2.2H2O) is China-clay referring to China where it was originally obtained in the 15th century. Geological works in the past indicated the presence of Kaolin in many localities within Ethiopia, some of which namely, Kombolcha, near Harar, and many occurrences in Tigray are worthy mentioning. Of these the best studied and presently under mining is the Bambo Wuha deposit, in sidamo. The Bamba Wuha kaolin mining is supplying the main ceramic raw material to the only one ceramics factory of Ethiopia, known as Tabor Ceramics Factory, located in Awassa, south Ethiopia. Kaolin is an essential constituent of cups, saucers, plates, including other porcelain wares including porcelain electrical insulators. The deposit was discovered in the eighties, north of Kibre Mengist in the Regional State of Oromia. It contains a proven reserve of 200,000 tons, developed within strongly weathered massive and pegmatitic granite which is kaolinized to the depth of 20m. The pegmatite of Kenticha has also been proved as a possible source of quality quartz, suitable for the ceramic and glass industries.
The suitable raw materials for sheet glass manufacturing industry includes silica-sand, dolomite, kaolin, feldspar, limestone, and soda ash and all are present in ample within the country.
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G Y P S U M |
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Gypsum is one of the most abundant mineral resource of Ethiopia. A commercial application of gypsum has long been known and is much related to the age of modelling by clay and hardening that clay by burning. The clay modelling was man�s earliest means of permanent expression, but in later years �Plaster of Paris� made from the mineral gypsum proved more satisfactory medium for the same purpose. Since then gypsum is coined commercially with the term �Plaster of Paris�. The name is derived in reference to the long famous gypsum deposit at Montmartre, Paris. It was used originally for decoration and continued to do so in buildings particularly in interior roof decoration, for instance, the Sheraton Addis, five star hotel. The Plaster of Paris is a white powder produced by heating gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) to a temperature of 120oC in order to make it lose more than half of its water of crystallization. The product absorbs much water and set quickly in to a comparatively hard mass. Consequently the Plaster of Paris is largely used for stucco work, ornamental mouldings and heat and sound insulating plaster.
Raw gypsum is also used extensively as a soil conditioner and in the manufacturing of sulphuric acid and ammonium sulphate. Finely ground, known as white mineral is used as a filler for example in the paste industry. The rock gypsum is appreciably soluble in water and appears dull-coloured and massive or nodular and commonly containing impurities such as clay, sand or limestone. In the salt plain of Denakil depression rock salt and gypsum are the most recent Pleistocene deposits stratified for several hundred meters of thickness. A wide distribution of gypsum is noted for over 15km along the salt plain having a reserve estimate of several million tons. The gypsum occurrence, 30km south of lake Afdera, has been noted impregnation of copper mineralization related to extrusion of basaltic rocks. Back to Top |
S O D A A S H |
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Soda ash is a commercial name of sodium carbonate, which is known to occur naturally as carbonate of sodium, namely, trona (Na2CO3.NaHCO3.2H2O) and natron- (Na2CO3.10H2O).
Soda ash has several important uses, chiefly in chemicals, glass, soap and other detergent industries. It is also used in caustic soda which it self has many industrial applications such as in the preparation of alumina from the mineral bauxite, mercerizing cotton, petroleum refining, and in the manufacturing of rayon and paper pulp. It is also utilized in glass, textile and leather industries, in pharmaceutical mainly as glauber�s salt. A the large quantity of sodium sulphide is utilized in metallurgical process, for instace, the separation of Nickel, and copper. The resources of soda ash in these two lakes are sufficiently enough to support a major mining operation. Currently a pilot plant is mining 20,000tons/year of soda ash from lake Abiyata, which is used presently raw material to manufacture caustic soda in Ziway. Caustic Soda is chiefly used as an important ingredient for manufacturing soap and other detergents. Back to Top |
T A L C |
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About 90% of talc produced is marketed as ground form mostly after passing through a 200 mesh screen. Half of the total output is consumed by the Paint industry but TiO2 and baryte are substituting it in some paints. It is also used as a filler in a wide range of industries especially in rubber industry, and as a filler in asbestos products, composition flooring , wall plaster, oil cloths polish , soaps plastics and textile fabrics. The best quality talc is also used in pencils.
In Ethiopia, the main deposits of talc occur in altered and sheared magnesium rich basic igneous rock and dolomite. Accordingly in most of the Precambrian basement rocks talc occurs in the form schist in association with chlorite schist. It is reported to occur in Tigray, western Wollega, Sidamo and Moyale greenstone belts. For all that however there has been no systematic investigations on talc for commercial purposes. Hence it is recommended to study further to make the best of such important resources of the country. Back to Top |
D O L O M I T E |
 There are several million tons of dolomite as large in quantity as limestone is all over Ethiopia. Dolomite is composed of calcium and magnesium carbonate (CaCO3.MgCO3) and has the same name both for the mineral and the rock. It may contain detrital minerals and secondary silica (chert ). Dolomite occurs usually interbedded with limestone and also commonly occurs associated with rock salt and gypsum deposits within the Mesozoic sediments succession. Accordingly there are extensive occurrences of dolomitic rocks exposures in Makale, Ogaden, and Abay and Muger Valleys. Besides metamorphosed dolomitic marbles are plenty in south, western and northern Ethiopia. Dolomite�s main industrial application is presently to serve as a filler in pigment manufacturing industry. It is also extensively in use for refractory purposes in basic open hearth furnace and basic converters when it has been calcined to the dead-burned forms. In fact as a refractory mineral dolomite is not as good as magnesite but it has an advantage for being relatively cheaper than magnesite. Besides dolomite is far more abundant in nature than magnesite. Another important use of dolomite is in making magnesium carbonate known as "technical carbonate" (as magnesite is the best refractory minerals) for employment when mixed with asbestos, as heat insulator coverings for steam primes and boiling. So also dolomite is used as flux in the metallurgical industry and as building stone too. Moreover, a research is still undergoing in order to extract magnesium from dolomite. In this regard the automotive industry worldwide is engaged in a search for better light and strong materials to meet the emission standards. Accordingly magnesium is found to have high strength; light weight, and superior high pressure die-casting properties which collectively reduce fuel consumption. Magnesium, the lightest in weight of all metals, is becoming the metal of choice for many auto-parts for it is utilized in multitude of ways in which lightness combined with strength is of much importance, as in textile machinery, and musical instruments. Nowadays most of the magnesium presently mined is consumed in producing aircraft engines such as crankcases, oil-pack pistons, bearing, control levers and so forth. Because of this the demand for magnesium is increasing.
Presently, there is only a single private company, named Modern Building Industry PLC., located in Awash, that is engaged in processing a dolomitic marble in order to manufacture a standardized filler mineral at the required micro sizes. At the moment this company is supplied with the dolomitic marble from the Kenticha Precambrian rocks. This company is expected to supply the existed filler mineral to the Addis Ababa paint factories, which enable them to enjoy this good opportunity to reduce the cost of production. In Ethiopia, the prevailing demand for dolomite as a filler mineral is a couple of tens of thousand tons, however it is expected to progressively grow in line with the industrial progress of the country. Back to Top |
PHOSPHORUS AND IRON |
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The use of phosphoric acid, phosphate salts and their derivatives as artificial fertilizer has increased greatly to enhance soil productivity. Normally the chief sources of phosphorus are bones, guano and phosphate rock, and become the basis for fertilizer industry.
Phosphorus and iron containing minerals are formed within a magma by syngenetically segregated disseminations of ilmenite and magnetite. The ore bodies occur as a series of parallel lensoid bodies having on average 200 to 1400 m length and 2-6m width and 200 to 300 m depth. An earlier exploration conducted in Bikilal principally for iron by the Geological Surveys of Ethiopia in collaboration with the North Korean expertise indicated that the ore is composed of ilmenite (30%), magnetite (40%) and silicate (30%). The silicate group includes sulfide and apatite as accessory minerals and made up 0.5 to 2 %. This geological investigation showed magnetite and total iron to be 23% and 41%, respectively within an estimated 57 million tons of ore reserve at C1 and C2 categories. This is said to provide iron for about 100,000 tons yearly for 20 years. This figure is interesting considering the amount of iron and steel being presently imported to Ethiopia, which is a bit short of 100,000 tons yearly at the cost of nearly half a billion Birr (see table on page 12). Iron and other commodities such as fertilizer, sheet glass and etc. are costing us much in foreign currency.
Recent studies were undertaken focusing in assessing the rate of recovery and possibilities to qualify apatite to commercially acceptable grade (Abera 1985).
For all that however it is clear that at the moment Ethiopia is an importer of iron, fertilizer and sheet glass suggesting a potential domestic market for the type items. It is therefore convincing that the prevailing demand for these items will grow in the near future to cope up with the drastically increasing infrastructure.
Regarding exploration is inevitable because the Phosphate near Warder, Ogaden, requires further investigation. So also exploration for iron should be given special priority for it so indispensable for two basic reasons;
For all that however the items essential to biogas if continue imported could not be afforded by the peasant unless we use our iron resource to manufacture the items here in Ethiopia. Back to Top |
Q U A R T Z (SILICA SAND) |
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Quartz is known as the least exploited and yet the most abundant mineral resource of Ethiopia, despite its important industrial application, particularly in the manufacturing of glass. Accordingly quartz is given more emphasis in this document to address the currently prevailing high demand for glass in Ethiopia. Quartz is synonymous to silica sand but the latter is commonly used for commercial purposes. Quartz, an oxide of silicon (SiO2), is the most abundant of all minerals on the earth surface and occurs in rocks, sand of beaches, the gravel of rivers etc.. The quartz, which is frequently occurring in rock cavities is marked with well shaped crystals of hexagonal prism terminated by pyramidal faces.
Glass has many uses because of its transparency, high resistance to chemical attack, effectiveness as an electrical insulator and ability to contain a vacuum. Accordingly commercial glasses fall in to several classes; some of them being,
In spite of thousands of new formulations for glass during the past 30 years it is worthy of note that lime, silica and soda are still the major ingredient (over 90% ) for glass manufacturing. All these ingredients that are essential to manufacture glass are plentifully available in Ethiopia as described in the volume.
The flourishing beverage industries and beer breweries in Ethiopia are presently using bottle glasses imported from different countries, for instance, Coca Cola from South Africa. This is because there is a single small scale, Government run, Glass and Bottle Factory in Addis Ababa with no capacity to satisfy the demand for glass container. Silica sand deposits occurring in Tulu, Chembere and Kuffi localities within the Muger valley, located 69 km northwest of Addis Ababa, are the main suppliers of silica sand to the factory. The deposits are white sand and occur in the middle of successive sedimentary beds starting from bottom brown sandstone to the beds of clay and upper white sandstone. The sand is mined by open pit method and produce about 6000 tons annually simply because it is governed by the limited factory capacity. Besides to these deposits there are many localities with great potentials of silica sand deposits in Muger and Abay valleys and Mekale and Ogaden basins, having better grades than these currently quarried for glass manufacturing. .
Following the free market economic policy which created a conducive environment for private investment in real states, presently Ethiopia is undergoing huge infrastructure development and multistory commercial buildings particularly glass-walled varieties are emerging. This style is expected to flourish in the near future, thus the demand for flat glass for construction is growing year after year. For instance, two years ago about 30 million Birr worth of flat glass was imported. Accordingly it is necessary to make use of our sand resources to manufacture glass for a multitude of other related advantages. It is worthy considering the unique position of Ethiopia to the Middle East including its high hydroelectric potential which create a suitable environment for cheap glass manufacturing. Therefore Glass Manufacturing Industry is regarded as a very attractive and rewarding investment opportunity in Ethiopia. Back to Top |
Food and Cash Crop Processing Factories and particularly, Textile, and Leather Industries of Ethiopia are considered to have strong ground to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
One of the few major causes to create a bright opportunity for the industries can be achieved by substituting imported mineral products for home manufactured mineral products.
The Ministry of Mines confirms that every minerals useful to manufacture almost all imported mineral products are abundantly available within the country. Besides, other industries such as sheet glass, and paper industries can flourish because rock salt (known as Amole Chew), soda ash, sulphur, and silica sand, needed to manufacture flat glass and paper commodities, are plentifully available in the country. For instance, the chief application of sodium sulphate, produced by combining rock salt and sulphuric acid, is to convert wood into pulp which then become paper by adding kaolin. In this case kaolin is the chief filler mineral in pulp to form the body of the paper and its smooth surface. Kaolin is available locally and already in use in Tabor Ceramics Factory as a major raw material.
Therefore it is highly realistic to consider sheet glass and paper industries as some of the rewarding investment opportunities in the mineral industry. These industries have greater potentials to attract FDI in view of their secured domestic market and strong potential to use cheaply supplied domestic raw materials.
Likewise, potassium minerals are abundantly present in Dallol from which we can artificially produce potash salts whose principal application being to manufacture fertilizer, glass, soap, match and explosives and also useful ingredient for dyeing and tanning. Except the underlined item, others are not yet manufactured nor are partially produced in Ethiopia. Thus we are dependant on imported mineral products. Likewise diatomite is used as a filtering agent in the beer industry.
However, Ethiopia�s diatomite needs further effort to make use of it in our beer industries having considered the availability of abundant local resources. For instance, in one locality, Wonji area near to Addis Ababa, out of the proved reserve of 430,000 tons only less than 2000 tons of diatomite is utilized annually as a filler by the Ethio-Tyre and Rubber Private Limited Company. Such activities of our industries will push up the cost of production undoubtedly at the expense of their profit, and that significantly make life difficult to be competitive nor to attract FDI, unless otherwise.
Under such circumstances it is pleasing to know that the Government is committed to pursue a policy of industrialization having given emphasis not only in utilizing locally produced minerals as the main raw materials but also in setting purchase prioritisation for locally produced industrial products.
Ethiopia has sufficient quantities of mineral resources essential to manufacture fertilizer within the country.
Fertilizer is normally needed to increase crop production so as to meet the food demand for the growing Ethiopian population. High yield crop production under impoverished soil condition is almost impossible, thus forced the Ethiopian government to set a goal of optimal crop production by improving soil productivity.
Mineral products essential for plant growth can be grouped based on the quantity of nutrient utilized by the plant;
Regarding the secondary nutrients it is the need to increase high crop yield particularly on sandy and leached soils due to high rainfall/irrigations brought about the use of magnesium and sulphur containing fertilizers. In agriculture sulphur is really a very indispensable mineral mainly for two main reasons; firstly it is an essential plant nutrient thus it has to be present in soil as a fertilizer; secondly it plays a crucial role in the fertilizer industry, as the primary phosphate rock is converted into fertilizer after being treated with sulphuric acid. In that process sulphuric acid reacts with the calcium phosphate mineral (apatite) to form super phosphate and gypsum all together. Thus gypsum is present in normal super phosphate fertilizer. As a fertilizer sulphur is also absorbed by plants as SO42- ion and become a necessary component of protein. Some plants like mustard, onion and garlic require almost as much sulphur as they do phosphorus.
Potash and sulphur are available in the Denakil depression. Likewise gypsum too occurs in the Denakil depression and also occur more abundantly in association with limestone in the Abay Gorge, Mekale, Muger and Jemma valleys. Besides gypsum can be employed to produce sulphur through heating with coal. Phosphorus in the apatite mineral, occurring in Bikilal along with the iron ore magnetite, can be utilized to produce super phosphate fertilizer using sulphuric acid. It is therefore necessary to utilize these resources in our fierce wrestling with famine, the bad stigma of Ethiopia in the eye�s of the world.
During the down faulting of the Afar depression there were abundant over pouring of volcanic and detrital sediments accumulations tended to fill the depression even if erosion was high from the steep escarpment. However the subsidence was more rapid than deterital infilling. In this regard other industrial minerals of economic reserves such as diatomite, bentonite, and lignite seams were formed within the Pleistocene lacustrine sediments and intertrappean fluvo-lacustrine sediments.
The economic recovery of potash is almost entirely limited to the soluble salts occurring in the sedimentary deposit formed by evaporation of sea water.
Several geological investigations had been conducted for coal by the Geological Survey of Ethiopia and resulted in delineating several coal deposits..
Fuel wood is the widely practiced energy source of the rural population of Ethiopia. This is really at the expense of vast destruction of vegetation which is resulting in degradation of the natural ecosystem. Considering the amount of hard currency spent yearly by Ethiopia for fuel oil it is appreciably clear that it shares a major part of the total import bill of the country. Coal is therefore one of the most important mineral resources of the country to contribute significantly for the economic growth and to make Ethiopia self-reliant. Economic considerations appraised the Delbi, Moye and Yayu coal deposits to be the best whereas, Chilga and Mush valley coal deposit as significant deposits requiring further investigation. Other coal occurrences such as Gojeb, Chinda, Kindo, Halul and Wake in the Southern People, Nation, Nationalities, and Wuchale in the Amhara, and Arjo, Nejo and Mendi in the Oromia National Regional States are worthy mentioning.
Prior to the independence of Eritrea annually about 200,000 tons of salt was obtained for human consumption from the Red Sea shore of Massawa and Assab to the in land Ethiopia. Besides, additional sources have had contributions by semi artisanal miners scattered in several parts of the country. Presently roughly about 250,000 tons of table salt is estimated to be consumed annually in Ethiopia, of which a significant portion is imported from Djibouti and Yemen.
In fact the salt plain is part and parcel of the Denakil depression known to have been filled with Pleistocene evaporite deposit and Quaternary alluvium deterital sediments. The Denakil depression covers about 5000km2 of which 1150km2 is effectively covered by evaporite, the centre of which is known as Dallol depression, 120m below sea level.
Presently the principal production of rock salt (locally known as Amole Chew) comes from Badda, Gabro and Assale areas within the central part of the salt plain. Salt is also mined in Dobi at 600km on the Assab-Addis Ababa road.
The second potential source of salt is the brine lakes of Assale, Afdera and Badda. All lakes are confined within the salt plain from which salt has been extracted by traditional methods for both human and animal consumption. Of these the principal lake is Afdera, located about 125km south east of Dallol, at the southern limit of the Denakil depression. Salt production proceeds by pumping out brine into the man made ponds and allowed to evaporate with subsequent precipitation of salt ready for harvesting.
Feldspar is one of the abundant mineral resources of Ethiopia. There are two types of feldspar of a commercial value namely, potash feldspar- orthoclase and microcline (K2O.Al2O3.SiO2) and sodium feldspar- albite (Na2O.Al2O3.6SiO2) and perthite, which bears intergrowth in varying proportions with potash and sodium feldspars.
In the glass industry feldspar is often added to provide alkalies or alumina; in the latter case sodium feldspar is preferred as it has a higher Al2O3 content. For high grade colourless glass, not more than 0.1% Fe2O3 is allowed and 0.3% F2O3 for lower grade products. Requirement of particle size vary between �28 and �200 mesh.
In this case the feldspar used in the Ceramics industry should contain not less than 10% K2O, while Na2O should be lower than 2%. Between 5% and 20% quartz is allowed depending on the required quality of product.
Presently the feldspar useful for industrial application in Ethiopia comes from the Kenticha pegmatite which is produced as byproduct to the primary tantalum concentrate mining. The feldspar in Kenticha pegmatite usually forms large pure white crystals with intergrowth of quartz and spodumen.
This small scale open pit mining for Kaolin began in 1992. The pilot plant has a capacity of producing 15,000 tons annually, but due to the prevailing domestic market demand, only the Tabor Ceramic Factory and Melkasa Aluminium Sulphate and Sulphuric Acid Factory, it�s production is limited to nearly 4,000 tons. However the plant production could have exceeded beyond its full capacity if there had been a single Paper Factory in the country.
Kaolin is formed in two ways, namely, by the action of weathering and hydrothermal alteration, and both varieties are common in Ethiopia, although the latter is preferred to abundance and quality.
Almost every form of paper (periodical, books, writing paper, wrapping paper, and daily newspaper) contains kaolin as much as a tenth of its weight, as it is the chief filler in the pulp to produce the body of the paper and its smooth surface. Besides as a filler mineral kaolin is utilized in the rubber and paint Industries. It is also used in Cotton and Textile industry as stiffener to the cotton fabrics. It has also other application such as a mild abrasive in polishes, in cleansing soaps, in tooth powders and in manufacturing white cement, and for medical purpose as an observant toxin. Further more it has also a bright futurity to use as a source of aluminum. Hence Kaolin is an important mineral resource having a good opportunity for investment.
At least 90% of the gypsum produced currently in the world is used in the building industry as its uncalcined (uncooked) state is universally used as a retarder in Portland Cement. In this case gypsum is added as small lumps to the cement clinker before grinding.
Sodium carbonate is marketed as soda ash or anhydrous soda, (Na2CO3)and also as crystal soda or washing soda (Na2CO3.10H2O). In Ethiopia, soda ash (Na2CO3) is found in the sodic lake brine of Lake Abiyata and Lake Shala in the central main Ethiopian Rift (Oromia Region).
Ethiopia is rich in talc mineral. It is one of the softest mineral that can easily be scratched with a finger nail. It has a remarkable greasy or soapy feel and on that account the massive and frequently impure substance has been termed soapstone. It was in use during the stone age as a conveniently soft material for carving figures. Subsequent to this application when its fire-resisting properties become known talc had been utilized for making pots hence, known as potstone.
Talc, has low conductivity to heat and electricity, is fire resistant, hardened when heated to a high temperature, is not decomposed by acids, and is white in powder form. These valuable properties accounts for its wide use in the industry. In addition to its application in paint and paper industries it is also utilized in ceramics industry for the manufacturing of tile. It is employed for electrical insulation and for refractory purposes.
The principal raw material useful to extract magnesium is the mineral magnesite (MgCO3) however it is not as extensive as dolomite although dolomite is also used to some extent. Although the chemical process is costly, there is information that correctly magnesium compounds are now extracted on large scale from sea water as sea water contain one part of Mg in 800 part of water, and the chemical process is considered costly. Hence there is a better chance to for dolomite to substitute all sources of magnesium. In this case Ethiopia�s dolomite resource should be studied properly anticipating its demand growth in the foreseeable future. In this regard it is worthy considering the geological principle that a mineral that is not commercially essential today will be an important mineral tomorrow for various reasons. Accordingly the geological explorations being undertaken to assess the mineral resources of the country should continue steadily and update frequently the existing geological information.
In Ethiopia a few localities are reported as potential sources primarily for phosphorus and iron, occurring within basic to ultrabasic igneous rocks. Of these, Arba in Bale and Bikilal in Wollega are known, although Biklal is the best studied. The latter is situated 25 km northeast of Gimbi Town, in the Oromia National Regional State.
The phosphorus and iron mineralizations of Biklal are apatite and magnetite and ilmenite within a km wide hornblendite and believed to be continuous for over 12 km. These host rocks bear typical zoned layers of mafic ultramafic intrusions, manifested as central olivine gabbro surrounded by marginal metagabbro.
Apart from iron and phosphate, vanadium and titanium are metals byproduct considered to be commercially worthy using magnetic dressing benefication.
With these investigations it is said that the Bikilal deposit is commercially feasible for small to medium scale production by improving the benefication technological process. Presently an International Consultancy (EIGS, 1990, annual report) is working to complete the remaining prefeasiblity works.
In view of this the Bikilal iron ore with its associated byproducts - phosphorus, titanium and vanadium, is a rewarding investment to start with while exploration for another similar deposit is undergoing simultaneously.
It is also a significant rock forming mineral occurring in many rocks including granite. However the main sources of quartz for a commercial purpose are these rock units largely composed of quartz; namely quartzite and sandstone. Quartzite is composed almost entirely of quartz whereas sandstone contains up to 80% or more quartz. These rocks are regarded as the source of silica sand.
In Ethiopia both rock units are abundantly available and are one of the commonly used for building in Addis Ababa. The carved stone is known as �Ambo Dingay� after the name of the town where it is quarried from. The extensive occurrences of sandstone is attributed to the major marine transgression and regression cycles during Mesozoic period. The sedimentary rocks formed during this period are presumed to cover about 30% of the country. Accordingly the early transgression formed the Adigrat sandstone unconformably overlying the Precambrian basement complex. The corresponding regression also formed a series of bedded sandstone. Likewise the second transgression and regression formed sandstones compositionally varying from pure quartz to clay bearing and arkosic sandstone. Because of this all Mesozoic basins, Mekale, Ogaden, and Abay basin contain abundant exposures of sandstone.
Quartz/silica sand has many industrial applications. In the form of sand quartz is employed extensively in mortar and in cement industry, as a flux in metallurgical industry, in the manufacturing of glass and silica brick, as an abrasive, and for numerous other uses. Quartz powder is also utilized in paints, scouring, soaps, sand paper and as a filler.
In order to produce various types of glass large tonnages of silica sand are used each year in the world. Over all glass making in the USA is about $7000 million per year industry. Of which automobile glass represents almost half of the flat glass produced annually in USA.
For glass manufacturing pure quartz sand is required because iron affects the color of most glasses adversely. Thus iron should not exceed 0.45% for table ware, and 0.015% for optical glass. Partly for this reason establishing a glass factory is normally dependant on the location of the sand deposit in order to reduce the cost of operation.
In this connection an exploration license is already given to the Summit Partners PLC. for silica sand exploration over 80km2 in North Shewa.