Société Mokta El Hadid

First discovery

The mine is about 22 miles (35 km) from the port of Bône in the Mokta hill beside at the foot of a mountain chain that runs from south to north, then turns east to Bône.

The name "Mokta-el-Hadid" (the iron pass) indicates that the presence of iron has long been known, but there is no sign that it was worked before the first small-scale attempts in 1840.

The geologist Henri Fournel discovered the deposits of magnetite in 1843.

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 Générale 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.

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.

Talabot thought of building an ironworks at Bône, but abandoned the idea in 1848 partly 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.

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."

Mokta el Hadid mine

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. In 1862 the existing railway line from the port at the Seybouse river to the Karezas mine site was extended to the mine at Ain Mokra. The extension opened in 1864 and brought the total length of the railway line to 35 km. At that time the mine employed 3,000 people, mainly Italians.

Full-scale production began in 1865.

Before the mine was opened Bône had 10,000 inhabitants.

By 1924 there were 41,000 and the port was being used to export phosphates, lead and zinc ore.

The arrival in large volumes of Algerian ores from Mokta-el-Hadid upset the supply chain in France.

The success at the Firminy plant in making 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.

In 1865 Napoleon III came to Algeria and made 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.

Paulin Talabot founded the Société Générale Algérienne (SGA) in 1865 to promote economic growth in the colony of Algeria, which created five villages for French colonists.

It was granted 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of land in exchange for a 100 million franc loan to Napoleon III, which was spent on Algerian public works.

Lake of Fetzara

The mine is beside the Lake of Fetzara.

When it started operation the lake's surface elevation would have reached 16 metres (52 ft) in winter, with an area of 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres).

The lake was bordered with reeds and rushes, used for nesting by migratory birds, and was rich in fish.

The lake was considered a source of fever, and a 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) drainage channel flowing into the Oued Meboudja was proposed, but although the SGA had rights to the northern and eastern shores of the lake it did nothing.

In the 1870s the company planted many eucalyptus trees around the Lake of Fetzara.

A report published in 1901 said, "The example of Lake Fetzara has been much quoted; its marshy miasma infected the large mining works of Mokta-el-Hadid, decimated the staff, and rendered existence in this locality insupportable. Now, thanks to well developed forests of Eucalyptus, it presents all the conditions of a tolerable hygiene." The report then noted that the improvement could also be attributed in part to better medical attention and the fact that most of the staff commuted to work from Bône.

The trees were all killed by salt water seeping from the lake.

In 1877 the Mokta El Hadid company gained permission to drain the lake in exchange for free transfer of the reclaimed land.

A channel led from the center of the lake, crossed the 22 metres (72 ft) western flank and led to the Meboudja.

The surface elevation had dropped to 12 metres (39 ft) by 1880, but the lake remained swampy in summer.

Other operations

As of 1878, the company had also opened the Kareza, Bou H'amra and Marouania mines.

Before the Mokta deposits started showing signs of running out Alphonse Parran obtained the deposit of Rar El Baroud near Béni Saf in 1879.

The ore in the Béni Saf region near Montagnac (now named Remchi) is hematite with 2% manganese.

Between 1867 and 1947 the region produced 30 million metric tons of ore.

Alphonse Parran was also involved in one of the first iron ore mines in Kryvbas (then Russia, now Ukraine) in 1881 and the Gafsa phosphate deposits in Tunisia in 1886.

In Tunisia, as of 1893, the company owned concessions at Ras Radjid, Bou lanague, Dj Bellif and Ganara in the Kroumine between Tabarka and Cap Serrat.

The ores, which had not yet been worked, were brown and red hematites with an average of 50% iron.

By 1895, the company had bought all the iron ore beds in the Ouelhasses Cheragas ore district of Algeria apart from Boukourdan.

These included the Das rih and Bar el Baroud beds of Béni Saf, and the Ten Kreut, Djed el Haouraia and Sidi-safi groups of ore beds.

Only the Bar el Baroud was being worked, using open-cut mining to extract ore with at least 55% iron.

The port of Béni Saf was operated privately by the company, which had built it and had a 99-year lease.

Estimated output was 291,547 metric tons in 1892 and 203,338 tons in 1893.

Post-World War II

After World War II, the Mokta El Hadid iron ore belonged to the Mirabaud Group.

As of 1950. the company was capitalized at 5.1 billion francs, one of the top 2 on the Paris Bourse.

In 1951. the Société de l'Ouenza produced 60% of Algerian iron, 85% in Ouenza and 15% in Bou-Kadra.

Mokta-el-Hadid was the second iron ore mining company in Algeria, with many subsidiaries and several concessions, including in Morocco.

Henri Lafond was head of the Banque de l'Union Parisienne from 1951, which controlled Mokta El Hadid, and was also head of SACEM.

Lafond headed the Mokta company until his death in 1963.

On 24 April 1953. a joint corporation was established to mine a deposit estimated at 50 million tons of manganese ore in Gabon owned by the Bureau of Mines of Overseas France (21%), Eastern Tjbangi Mining Company (15%), Mokta el Hadid group (15%) and the U.S. Steel (49%).

A 220 miles (350 km) railway had first to be built to the coast, so full production was not expected until at least 1960.

The Compagnie minière de l'Ogooué (Comilog) had initial capital of CFA 150 million.

The first ore was shipped from Moanda on 2 October 1962.

In 1957, Georges Perrineau was appointed a director of the Mokta company and a member of the Executive Committee.

In 1962 he became vice-president and, at the end of 1962 replaced Henri Lafond as president of the SACEM subsidiary that exploited the Imini manganese deposits in Morocco.