Parliamentary Hearing: Mohamed Arkab Lays Bare the Stakes of Algeria’s Mining Sector
✍️ BY: Dr. Hana Saada
Algiers – November 2025 – In a session before the Assembly’s Commission for Economic Affairs, Development, Industry, Trade and Planning, Minister of State Mohamed Arkab presented a comprehensive and unflinching diagnosis of Algeria’s mining sector — its unrealised potential, accumulated failings and the reformist roadmap designed to convert subterranean wealth into enduring national value. The hearing, attended by Secretary of State for Mines Karima Bekir Tafer, the Director-General of the National Agency for Mining Activities Mourad Hanifi and senior ministry officials, framed mining as an essential engine for economic diversification beyond hydrocarbons and a pillar of the State’s strategic development agenda.
Arkab opened with a clear political line: the debate is part of a strategic push mandated by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to transform the mining sector into a genuine driver of development. That transformation, he said, is indispensable to reduce the economy’s historical dependence on hydrocarbon rents and to channel Algeria’s natural resources into value-added production that serves the national interest.
The minister did not shy away from hard truths. A rigorous diagnostic exercise — he reported — exposed a vast but poorly exploited mineral potential and a persistently marginal contribution to GDP. This underperformance, Arkab insisted, is the cumulative result of systemic weaknesses: chronic underinvestment in exploration and research, a paucity of up-to-date and reliable geological data, and the paradoxical continuation of imports for minerals available domestically — from concentrated iron ore to barite, bentonite, calcium carbonate, marble and granite — causing significant outflows of foreign currency.
Legal and infrastructural bottlenecks compound the problem. Arkab pinpointed the obsolescence of the previous legal framework (Law 14-05), inadequate structural infrastructure — especially in rail and port capacity — financing difficulties for projects, and deficits in technology transfer and human-capital development. These constraints, he argued, have constrained the sector’s capacity to translate resources into industrial activity, jobs and fiscal yield.
The turning point, Arkab said, is already underway. The new mining code, published in August after broad consultations and adopted under presidential guidance, marks a fundamental shift. He described the code as transformative: it simplifies procedures, shortens the timelines for granting mining titles and institutionalises a single-window mechanism. Significantly, it enables investment in exploration without requiring the immediate constitution of a corporate entity and, for the first time, allows mining titles to be ceded, leased or mortgaged — measures designed to unlock bank financing. The reform also strengthens specialized institutions, notably the National Agency for Mining Activities and the Geological Service of Algeria, to play a central role in implementation.
Arkab articulated a strategic reorientation: moving from raw extraction to an integrated mining industry. He enumerated flagship projects that embody this ambition. Gara Djebilet in Tindouf was highlighted as a strategic iron deposit crucial to supplying domestic industry and reducing imports. The integrated phosphate project in the east was presented as central to fertilizer production and national food security. The zinc–lead project at Oued Amizour – Tala Hamza aims to meet domestic industrial needs while exporting high-value processed outputs.
Diversification of the national mineral base and an intensification of exploration programs are non-negotiable policy priorities, Arkab insisted, coupled with the development of non-ferrous industrial mineral value chains to fully substitute imports. Central to this strategy is a firm requirement to maximise local content, accelerate technology transfer and prioritise domestic production — an element Arkab framed as a sovereign imperative for safeguarding national wealth and preventing the export of unprocessed raw materials.
Infrastructure, long a constraining factor, is receiving targeted responses. Arkab pointed to notable progress on major projects: the Gara Djebilet–Béchar railway line, whose inauguration is scheduled for January 2026, is a pivotal logistics enabler for mineral flows; the modernization of the Tébessa – Souk Ahras – Annaba corridor is integral to the eastern phosphate complex; and the extension of the mineral port of Annaba is expected to enhance export capacity. These interventions, he argued, will materially reduce bottlenecks that previously throttled project viability.
International partnerships form a complementary pillar of the ministry’s approach. Working in coordination with the Sonarem group, Arkab said, the ministry is actively mobilising foreign capital, advanced technologies and capacity-building arrangements under a win-win logic designed to strengthen national skills while attracting necessary investment.
📡🌍 | About Dzair Tube Media Group | 🌍📡
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📰 Dzair Tube is a trailblazer in Algerian digital journalism, delivering high-quality content in Arabic, French, and English. With more than 📈 500,000 daily clicks, it ranks among the most influential media platforms in the country.
🏆 Awarded the President of the Republic’s Prize for Professional Journalist in the Electronic Press category (🗓 October 22, 2022), Dzair Tube is widely recognized for its editorial excellence and integrity.
📱 Massive Digital Reach:
🔴 350,000+ YouTube subscribers
🔵 6 million+ followers across Facebook pages
📸 70,000+ Instagram followers
🎥 Operating from state-of-the-art studios, Dzair Tube broadcasts rich and diverse programming, including:
🗞 News | ⚽ Sports | 🎭 Entertainment | 🕌 Religion | 🎨 Culture
🗣️ Featuring interactive talk shows and exclusive interviews with prominent figures from politics, business, arts, and more, Dzair Tube serves as a key platform for public discourse and civic engagement.
📰 Its print sports daily, “Dzair Sport,” enjoys over 50,000 daily downloads via the official website—further cementing the platform’s multimedia leadership.
🎖️ Honored with the Media Leadership Award by the former Minister of Communication, Mohamed Laâgab, and celebrated at the Hilals of the Television awards, Dzair Tube continues to lead with innovation, influence, and impact.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🌐 Stay Connected:
🔗 Website: www.dzair-tube.dz
🔗 English: www.dzair-tube.dz/en
📲 Follow us on Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
