Société Mokta El Hadid

Société Mokta El Hadid
Industry Mining
Founded 1845
Founder Paulin Talabot
Headquarters Algeria
Products Iron ore

The Société Mokta El Hadid is an iron ore mining company in Algeria. From around 1865 until 1927 it was the largest mining company in Algeria, delivering ore of exceptional quality for processing in France.

First discovery

Algeria in the 19th century did not have coking coal, so did not process its iron ore. Instead, the ore was shipped to the coast and sold to a shipper, who in turn sold it to European steel mills for about twice the price.[1] The geologist Henri Fournel discovered iron ore deposits near the port of Bône.[1] The businessman Paulin Talabot had a "Mediterranean dream" involving "the exploitation of the mines of the Bône region, which would feed his coal mines in the Grand-Combe by means of rapid transport in his ships of the Compagnie generale transatlantique, relayed by his Algerian railroad cars and those of the PLM." Before Fournel's survey was complete, in 1845 the Talabots or their associates had obtained three of the four concessions in the Bône region. Talabot thought of building an ironworks at Bône, but abandoned the idea in 1848 part due to the danger of attack by the Algerians and in part to a threatened boycott of Algerian iron ore by the Schneiders of Le Creusot.[2]

A report by Fournel to the Académie des sciences on 14 May 1848 said, "to the north of Lake F'Zara there is a whole mountain, the Mokta-el-Hadid (the quarry of iron) which emerges from the gneisses and literally presents from foot to top, that is to say over a height of more than one hundred meters, a mass of pure oxidized iron, with no admixture of rock. To the east of this deposit, which few deposits known elsewhere could parallel, the oxidized iron pierces several other points."[3] Talabot asked the geologist Émilien Dumas to assess the deposit. He contacted the polytechnician and engineer of mines Alphonse Parran to form the new company and start exploitation.[4]

Due to shortage of both labour and capital, little progress was made and in 1849 the government revoked the three Talabot concessions. In 1852 they were restored after Napoleon III had taken power. In 1857 the Mokta el Hadid mine was found, and the Talabots gained the concession. The ore was in a vein 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) long and 10 to 50 metres (33 to 164 ft) wide. The ore was magnetite, 70% pure iron.[2] This ore, free of sulfur and phosphorus, was much more suitable for the Bessemer and Martin processes than the poorer ores high in phosphorus that are typical of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.[5]

Operations

Napoleon III dining in a tent at the mine site (1965)

A short railway line was built from the mine at Ain Mokra to the Bône docks.[6] Extensive construction was undertaken at Bône in 1856–69 to build an 80 hectares (200 acres) sheltered port facility to handle the ore from Mokta el Hadid.[7] Full-scale production began in 1865.[8] The arrival in large volumes of Algerian ores from Mokta-el-Hadid upset the supply chain. The success at the Firminy plant in developing steel rails using only ore from the Algerian mines was a major argument for installation of furnaces based on the Martin process at Le Creusot. In 1865 Eugène Schneider had reached an agreement with Paulin Talabot to obtain a large supply of Algerian ore, making it possible to start intensive steel production.[9]

In 1865 Napoleon III visited Algeria, including a trip to the mine and the city of Bône. A photograph survives of the emperor and his entourage taking refreshment under a tent at the mine site. In the 1870s 2/3 of all miners in Algeria were working the Mokta-el-Hadid mine.[2] In 1875–76 the Bou Djima River, which was carrying silt into the port, was diverted to the Seybouse River. The railway could now be extended to the port, considerably reducing transport costs.[7]

Philippe de Cerner, the company manager in Bône, convinced the government to extend the railway west from Ain Mokra to connect with the main line to Philippeville. He then persuaded the government to assume responsibility for running the line in the public interests. From 1908 to 1917 de Cerner directed the line himself.[6] After the deposits were exhausted the company found another rich source of iron ore in western Algeria near the sea at Beni Saf, where a port was built.[1] Mokta el Hadid was the largest mining company in Algeria until 1927, when it was overtaken by the Societe de l'Ouenza.[10]

Before the Mokta deposits started showing signs of running out Parran obtained the deposit of Rar El Baroud near Béni-Saf in 1879. Parran was also involved in the Kryvyi Rih iron ore mine in Russia in 1881 and the Gafsa phosphate deposits in Tunisia in 1886. Parran created the Bône-Philippeville railway line and drained the Lake of Fetzara in an effort to eliminate the malaria that was infecting the miners and their families. The Mokta el Hadid iron ore mining company was responsible for creation of SACEM in 1929 and the operation of Imini mines from the same year. In 1965 the centenary of the company was celebrated in Abidjan in the presence of President Houphouët Boigny.[4]

Notes

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