Siwa Salt

SIWA SALTTHE GEOLOGY OVERVIEW OF

DR. INDJIE HAFEZ CLUB PRESIDENT DR. DINA ALMANZALAWY ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE CHAIR FIELD EXPERT DEPARTMENT – FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE, BENHA PROF. DR. MOHAMED EL SAYED ALI UNIVERSITY PROF. DR. MOHAMED BASSIOUNI ENVIRONMENT ASSESSMENT IMPACT SOIL SUFACE PLANTING SYSTEMS

GEO STATS 657.5 km 7h 20 mins by passenger car

GEO STATS DEPTH 15 MTRS. BELOW SEA LEVEL LANDMASS 65’000 FEDANDS SALT POTENTIAL 60 MILLION TONS 5X+ SEA WATER SALINITY

EGYPTIAN SALT PRODUCTION COMPETITIVENESS ANNUAL PRODUCTION TOTAL GLOBAL ANNUAL MARKET: 255 MILLION TONS 11% MARKET LEADERS • CHINA: 80 MILLION TONS • USA: 40 MILLION TONS • INDIA: 25 MILLION TONS • GERMANY: 19 MILLION TONS 21% 78% EGYPT 1% CHINA 67% USA WORLD WIDE EGYPT: 4.8 MILLION TONS ANUALLY SINCE 2017 SALTWORK ANNUAL PRODUCTION OUTPUT IN TONS PORT SAID 350’000 FAYYOUM SINAI 1 MILLION TONS PER ANUM ALEXANDRIA

SIWA GEO TERRAINE • The Siwa Oasis is an urban oasis in Egypt between the Qattara Depression and the Great Sand Sea in the Western Desert • It is nearly 50 km east of the Libyan border, and 560 km from Cairo depending on road choice. • Siwa Oasis is one of Egypt's most isolated settlements, with about 33,000 people • Siwans are mostly ethnic Berbers who have developed a unique culture and a distinct language of the Berber family called Siwi

SIWA UNDERGROUND AQUIFERS

SIWA GEO TERRAINE

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SIWA SALT • SALINITY: ranging from 98 to 99.3% and 5% higher than seawater, while the salinity in the salts of Alexandria and El Arish are between 95 and 97%, • HUMIDITY: does not exceed 1%, while up to 5% in Alexandria salt, • SNOW: because the salinity of Siwa salt is higher than seawater, it cuts consumption by half. Instead of using 7 tons to melt a kilometer of roads, only 4 Siwa salt tons are needed for that purpose. SIWA SALT MINING & PRODUCTION OVERVIEW

EAST & WEST

WEST EAST SALT MINING SALT MINING SALT MINING

EAST SALT HARVESTING • Since 2011 • Process • Safi Productions • Minimal process is needed • 2nd harvest is of a higher grade • Production: • Pure mineral salt • Various granulations & flake size crystals • Uses / Purposes: • Food industries • Commercial household consumption • Other • Supplies the following Industries: • Petroleum • Detergent • Tanneries





SALT MINING WEST SALT MINING Direct mining system since 1961 • Production: • Salt rock slabs / stones / crystals • Raw Material • Uses / Purposes: • Tourism / Healing • Crafts • Lamps • Beds • Bricks • Supplies the following Industries: • Petroleum • Detergent • Tanneries



• Water resources in Siwa oasis, Egypt; include • the Nubian sandstone aquifer system (NSSAS), • Tertiary carbonate aquifer system (TCAS) • springs and lakes GEO FOSSIL WATER SOURCE IN SIWA SOURCE: Investigation of Chemical and Radiochemical Fingerprints of Water Resources in Siwa Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt S. A.El-Sayed, Kh. A. Allam, M. H. Salama and H. El Begawy Egyptian Nuclear and Radiological Regularity Authority, ENRRA – September 2016

According to the study conducted in 2016 the water analysis from the NSAS showed the following constituents and trace elements: • Cl-, • Co, • SO42-, • Fe, • CO32-, • Cu, • HCO3-, • Mn, • Na+, • Mo, • K+, • Ni, • Ca2+ • Pb, • Mg2+, • Sr, • Al, • V, • B, • Zn, • Ba, • Si • Cd, • Cr GEO FOSSIL WATER SOURCE IN SIWA SOURCE: Investigation of Chemical and Radiochemical Fingerprints of Water Resources in Siwa Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt S. A.El-Sayed, Kh. A. Allam, M. H. Salama and H. El Begawy Egyptian Nuclear and Radiological Regularity Authority, ENRRA – September 2016









SAFI SALT INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

SAFI SALT INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX SIWA • Safi is a salt production complex that includes:- • A screening plant • with a volume classification of 50 tons / hour production capacity. • A washing plant • with a capacity of 50 tons per hour with a total of 250 thousand tons per year • A production plant • with a production capacity of 50 tons per hour with a total capacity of 300 thousand tons per year

ADMIN BUILDINGS

SCREENING UNIT

FEEDING UNIT

WASHING TANKS

CONTROL ROOM

BASINS

SAFI PLANT SIWA • Safi Processing Plant supplies output to the following industries (as per their website): • Food • raw materials in various industries such as: • Chlorine • Caustic Soda • Dyes and • Tanneries. • Estimated salt reserves of the Siwa Oasis is 500 million tons of pure salt

• Salt crude export In 2010, the importance of Siwa salt came to light, namely: • GOE bureaucracy impeding business development & growth • Olive Lake or Abu Sharshouff, with an area of ​5760 feddans, • 60 extractors shrunk to 25 over a five-year period • Abou Sharshouff is characterized and has distinguishing • Extractors do not sell directly to Europe and/or America but features that set it apart from the other nine lakes of Siwa in its rather to exporters in Damietta and Alexandria increased salinity • Absence of State facilities for investors • It is followed by Lake Maraky, which is characterized by the • Absence of government permits to build private factories for hardness of its rock salt in its mines which can be used in sculpture therapeutic salt caves. salt ore convergence into medical product • Government owned Siwa Salt Complex is monopolizing salt He added: \"A number of investors began to enter into disputes with the hand-setters and obtain areas on the olive lake in 2010, processing in the area to start their work in 2011, and after the revolution of 2011, began • Siwa Salt Complex processes only for salt re-use the to legalize the situation of investors who put their hands on the quarries in 2012, and the City Council of Siwa license for 60 For a manufacture of soap, alkali, chlorine, period of 10 years and is calculated retroactively every three months, from what was sold only, until the transfer of salt mines The Mineral Wealth Authority imposed 15 pounds per to the Mineral Resources Authority in 2014, and signed new meter of mined salt, without regard to what was sold or annual contracts, and set the minimum area of the mine 1500 the work of the mine which contributed to the cessation meters at a depth of 15 meters, Mine owners to nearly 25 ». of more than half of the number of extractors, who have now shrunk to 7 extractors, all of whom work on extracting for the purpose of de-icing selling to investors in the governorates of Damietta and Alexandria