Dead Sea Holds Great Boon For Farmers

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 118, 9 August 1927, Page 18

Dead Sea Holds Great Boon For Farmers

Vast Wealth of Potash Salts in its Waters SCHEME FOR RECOVERY A cablegram received yesterday from London said that concessions are about to be granted which will allow the waters of the Dead Sea to be made to yield up their valuable mineral content. Twelve hundred billion dollars is the modest estimate of the value of recoverable salts contained in the waters of the Dead Sea, presented by Dr. Thomas H. Norton, technical editor of “Chemicals” (New York). In this he gives the story of the efforts toward securing an operating concession for exploiting these riches and throwing on the market vast quantities of valuable industrial and agricultural material at prices far lower than those now obtaining. The bulk of the profits, we are told, will go to the Government of Palestine, and be employed for its rehabilitation. Writes Dr. Norton:— “There are few opportunities for expansion in the field of chemical industry which can rival that now being opened in Palestine. That historic land, now a mandated territory under British rule, is entering upon a period of economic development totally impossible under Ottoman domination. The most fascinating domain is that within the province of the chemist. MINERAL WEALTH “There is nothing to prevent this land from becoming at an early date a powerful factor in the production on a large scale of some of our most important chemicals, and from being the seat of one chemical world monopoly. The Dead Sea, into which the River Jordan pours, is one of the most extensive and valuable storehouses of mineral wealth on the surface of our globe. Here are Accumulated enormous quantities of a few staple chemicals, adequate in amount to meet the world’s needs for many centuries. They are in solution, in the form of a saturated brine. For their separation, solar evaporation is the chief factor employed. No spot on our planet is so favourably situated for the purpose. INCREDIBLE CHEAPNESS “A combination of climatic and topographic conditions renders it possible to recover, in a state of high commercial purity, these few salts, at incredible cheapness, within a few miles of ocean transportation. These salts are masnesium chloride, potassium chloride, common salt (unusually pure), and magnesium bromide (serving for the production of bromine). “Palestine will not be alone in profiting from this sudden entry of the Dead Sea among the chemical assets of the world. The farmers of Great Britain and of the Dominions, as well as those of all other countries, will appreciate a cut in the cost of potash, that indispensable plant food, to at least one-half of what they have hitherto paid UNTOUCHED RICHES “The question naturally arises: Why have these vast chemical treasures remained for so long practically unknown to the industrial world, while eager pioneers were developing the gold placers of the Yukon or Siberia, amid Arctic hardships, or the tin of Bolivia, the copper of the Congo, and