DEAD SEA CONCESSION

Hokitika Guardian, 3 February 1930, Page 3

DEAD SEA CONCESSION

AGREEMENT COMPLETED.

RUGBY, January 29

Dr. Shiels, Under-Secretary for the Colonies, stated in the House of Commons. that a preliminary agreement regarding the Dead Sea concession which was signed last May had since been completed. The deed was signed January Ist, granting a concession to the Palestine Potash Company, forr ed by Mr Novomeysky and Major Tulioch.

Dr. Thomas H. Norton, of New York; estimates that there are obtainable notably 1300 million tons of potash, 853 million tons of bromine, 11,900 tons of salt (unusually pure), and 22,000 million tons of magnesium chloride.

Mr Moses Novomeysky and Major Tulioch were, on May 23rd, 1929 awarded a concession for the extraction of salts from the Dead Sea. A correspondent in the “Manchester Guardian,” discussing the possibilities Qf the concession, says that scientists are agreed upon the enormous potential wealth of the minerals lying in the Dead Sea, hut opinions differ upon the possibility of putting these minerals on an extensive scale on the world market. Some, experts state that is it perfectly feasible to land potash from the Dead Sea in New York at a price one-fourth of that of the potash of Germany, which at the present time largely controls the world’s markets but other experts are inclined to doubt that. Mr Novtomevsky and Major Tulioch are resolvqd to begin on a modest scale. An attempt will be .made to find new markets in Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq, and countries neighbouring the Eastern Mediterranean. If things develop as the concessionaires hope, however, a railway may be constructed to Ababa, and so ft route may be found to the agricultural East, which will avoid the heavy dues of the Suez Ganali