The Société Mokta El Hadid was an iron ore mining company in Algeria, and later in other West African countries. From around 1865 until 1927 it was the largest mining company in Algeria, delivering ore of exceptional quality for processing in France. In 1878 the original Mokta El Hadid mine near Bône (now

Annaba Annaba (), formerly known as Bon, Bona and Bône, is a seaport city in the northeastern corner of Algeria, close to the border with Tunisia. Annaba is near the small Seybouse River and is in the Annaba Province. With a population of about 263,65 ...

) was said to be capable of supporting 25% of Europe's steel production. Before this mine was exhausted the company opened additional mines in Algeria. Later it extended its operations to countries such as Tunisia, Morocco, Niger, Côte-d'Ivoire and Madagascar, and mined manganese, chromium and uranium. In October 1970 the Société le Nickel, soon to become the

Imétal IMERYS S.A. is a French Multinational corporation, multinational company that specialises in the production and processing of industrial minerals. The main headquarters is located in Paris and are constituents of the CAC Mid 60 index. Groupe Bru ...

holding company, took over the Mokta company. The company was later renamed Compagnie française de Mokta (CFM), specializing in uranium mining.

First discovery

The mine is about from the port of

Bône Annaba (), formerly known as Bon, Bona and Bône, is a seaport city in the northeastern corner of Algeria, close to the border with Tunisia. Annaba is near the small Seybouse River and is in the Annaba Province. With a population of about 263,65 ...

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 Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula . It is one of the iron oxide, oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetism, ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetization, magnetized to become a ...

in 1843. The businessman

Paulin Talabot François "Paulin" Talabot (; 18 August 1799 – 21 March 1885), also known as Paulin-François Talabot, was a French railway and canal engineer and politician. Educated at École polytechnique, Talabot started his career building canals. Inspire ...

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 The Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT, and commonly named "Transat"), typically known overseas as the French Line, was a French shipping company. Established in 1855 by the brothers Émile and Issac Péreire under the name ''Compagnie ...

, 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 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 Le Creusot () is a Communes of France, commune and industrial town in the Saône-et-Loire Departments of France, department, Regions of France, region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, eastern France. The inhabitants are known as Creusotins. Formerl ...

. 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." 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. 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 Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

had taken power. Meanwhile, Eugène de Bassano, a Paris entrepreneur better known as Marquis de Bassano, founded the ''Société Civile des Mines et Hauts Fourneaux des Karezas'', which had the concession to exploit a deposit in Meboudja between Bône and Aïn-Mokra (now

Berrahal Barrahel is a town in north-eastern Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Alger ...

), which was called the Karezas mine. The company built a narrow-gauge railway to transport the iron ore from the mine to a harbour on the

Seybouse River Seybouse (in ) is a river in northeastern Algeria, near the border with Tunisia. In Roman times, it was called the ''Ubus''. Course The river runs for about , flowing through Guelma and Annaba Provinces. It starts in Medjez Amar, in the Tell At ...

near Bône. The place was called Allélik and was 6 km south of Bône. It is where the ironworks and blast furnaces for processing the ore were located. The 11 km long railway with a gauge of 1.055 mm opened in 1853 and was the first railway built in Algeria, however not open to public transport. In 1857 the Mokta el Hadid mine was found, and the Talabots gained the concession. The ore was in a vein long and wide. The magnetite ore was 70% pure iron. This ore, free of sulfur and phosphorus, was much more suitable for the Bessemer and

Martin Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * M ...

processes than the poorer ores high in phosphorus that are typical of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. Plans for a merger with the steelworks at Alais in the

Gard Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019; Plans were drawn up to combine the Mokta el Hadid mines with the

Firminy Firminy (; ) is a commune in the Loire department in central France. It lies on the river Ondaine, 13 km southwest of Saint-Étienne by rail. History The ancient name of the town was ''Firminiaco'' or ''Firminiacus'' (lit. "place of Fir ...

, Loire, steelworks, the

Gard Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019;Saut-du-Tarn steelworks The Saut-du-Tarn Steel Works () was a steel maker in Saint-Juéry, Tarn, France. It originated with Léon Talabot et Compagnie, founded by Léon Talabot in 1824. The factory specialized in manufacturing steel handtools such as files, scythes and si ...

near

Albi Albi (; ) is a commune in France, commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn (department), Tarn Departments of France, department, on the river Tarn (river), Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ...

, Tarn. 20 million francs of capital would be needed, including 8 million of fresh capital for upgrades at the various sites. These plans also dragged out.

Mokta el Hadid mine

Extensive construction was undertaken at Bône in 1856–69 to build an 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 An open-hearth furnace or open hearth furnace is any of several kinds of industrial furnace in which excess carbon and other impurities are burnt out of pig iron to produce steel. Because steel is difficult to manufacture owing to its high mel ...

. In 1865

Eugène Schneider Joseph Eugène Schneider (29 March 1805 – 27 November 1875) was a French industrialist and politician. In 1836, he co-founded the Schneider company with his brother, Adolphe Schneider. For many years he was a Deputy, and he was briefly Minis ...

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 Groupe Lactalis S.A. (doing business as Lactalis) is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier S.A. Lactalis is the largest dairy pr ...

(SGA) in 1865 to promote economic growth in the colony of Algeria, which created five villages for French colonists. It was granted of land in exchange for a 100 million franc loan to Napoleon III, which was spent on Algerian public works. After experiencing some financial difficulties the SGA was reorganized as the

Compagnie Algérienne The ''Compagnie Algérienne'' (), from 1942 to 1948 ''Compagnie Algérienne de Crédit et de Banque'' (, "Algerian Credit and Banking Company"), was a significant French bank with operations in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon as well as ma ...

in 1877. In 1865 the mine produced 22,000 tons, rising to 255,000 tons in 1869. The abundant ore was extracted from underground galleries and shipped from Bône to the main French steelworks. In 1870 Algeria as a whole exported 84,710 tons of iron ore. In the 1870s 2/3 of all miners in Algeria were working the Mokta-el-Hadid mine. In 1874 the Mokta el Hadid mine alone shipped 430,000 tons of ore, containing 260,000 tons of iron. At this time Britain was producing a total of 500,000 tons of steel. The mine was said to be capable of supporting 25% of Europe's steel production. In 1875–76 the Bou Djima River, which was carrying silt into the port, was diverted to the

. The railway could now be extended to the port, considerably reducing transport costs. Alphonse Parran remained head of the company until 1900. Philippe de Cerner took over management of the Mokta-el-Hadid mine in 1875. Output from the 14 iron ore mines in Algeria rose to 511,000 tons in 1876, then started to decline. In 1879 the country exported 400,000 tons, of which 320,000 tons came from Mokta-el-Hadid. Very little of the ore was smelted before export. The port of Bône shipped only 148,695 tons of ore in 1893. Mining at Mokta el Hadid ended in 1904.

Lake of Fetzara

The mine is beside the

Lake of Fetzara The Lake of Fetzara is located in northeastern Algeria, southeast of the city of Annaba. It measures from east to west and from north to south, with an area of about . It was officially classified as an area "Ramsar", which involves protection ...

. When it started operation the lake's surface elevation would have reached in winter, with an area of . 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 drainage channel flowing into the

Oued Meboudja Oued Meboudja is a wadi in Annaba (Algeria). Location The wadi is a left tributary of the Seybouse River, which it joins near El Hadjar to the south of the industrial center of Annaba. Human impact In 1877 the Société Mokta El Hadid The Soc ...

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 western flank and led to the Meboudja. The surface elevation had dropped to by 1880, but the lake remained swampy in summer. After 1903 the company ceded its rights to the Lake of Fetzara to the SGA colony, which took over the work and completed it in 1935.

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 Beni Saf () is a town in northwestern Algeria, about 80 kilometers southwest of Oran. The town was founded in 1876 as a shipping port for iron ore, which is mined just south of the town. Other products of the town include zinc, marble and onyx, and ...

in 1879. The ore in the Béni Saf region near Montagnac (now named

Remchi Remchi is a town and commune in Tlemcen Province in north-western Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the ...

) is

hematite Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...

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 :''Kryvbas'' ''may also refer to the FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih, the football team in Kryvyi Rih. See also Kryvbas (disambiguation)'' Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Basin (; ), commonly known by the portmanteau Kryvbas (; ), is an important economic and histor ...

(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 Tabarka ( ') is a coastal town located in north-western Tunisia, close to the Algeria–Tunisia border, border with Algeria. Tabarka was occupied at various times by Punic people, Punics, Greeks, Roman people, Romans, Arabs, Genoa, Genoese and O ...

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. Destinations, in order, were England, the Netherlands, France, the US and Belgium. The company obtained the Boukhadra deposits near the Tunisian border in 1902. In the period from 1900 to 1930 the company was among the powerful capitalist groups in the French colonial empire that provided exceptional rates of profit. Alphonse Parran was succeeded as head of the company in 1900 by Édouard de Billy (1866–1919). Billy was replaced in 1918 by Charles-Émile Heurteau (1878–1961), who took the simple title of Director while Léon de Nervo (1873–1973), the heir of Paulin Talabot, took the title of Managing Director. Léon de Nervo was also president of the Société Commerciale de Navigation, which operated three 6,800 ton cargo vessels that carried North African iron ore to European ports and to the US. Heurteau left in the 1920s to take a position as Managing Director at the Marles coal mines. André Duby joined as chief engineer of technical services in 1927, then became co-director with Léon de Nervo, and sole director in the 1940s. Charles Jonnart 1918

From 1901 the company began using Moroccan workers in its Béni Saf mines. The Compagnie des mines du Djebel-Djerissa was created in 1899 with a capital of 4.5 million francs divided into 9,000 shares of 500 francs. In 1905 the nominal share value was reduced to 400 francs and the capital was reduced to 3.6 million francs. The Société du Djebel-Djerissa became in effect a subsidiary of the Société Mokta El Hadid of Algeria, which took a stake of 5,200 shares in the mine in 1906. In 1905 the small Mokta railway was connected to the departmental network, connecting the port of Bone to the Jemmapes ( Azzaba) region, and now extended as far as Saint-Charles ( Ramdane Djamel). Philippe de Cerner, the company manager in Bône, had convinced the government to extend the railway west from Ain Mokra to connect with the main line to Philippeville (

Skikda Skikda (; formerly Philippeville from 1838 to 1962 and Rusicade in ancient times) is a city in northeastern Algeria and a port on the Mediterranean. It is the capital of Skikda Province and Skikda District. History The Phoenicians and Carthagi ...

), and then persuaded the government to assume responsibility for running the line in the public interest. Philippe de Cerner was appointed director of the new line from 1908 until his retirement in 1917. In 1912 the Compagnie des minerais de fer magnétique de Mokta-el-Hadid had a capital of 20 million and made a profit of 4.5 million. When World War I began Mokta-el Hadid was one of only two privately owned French colonial companies other than banks and railways with capital of over 20 million francs, the other being the Société Le Nickel in New Caledonia. In 1917 the Société Mokta El Hadid and the Société des Hauts Fourneaux de Rouen agreed to form a joint venture to exploit the Boukhadra deposits, which was supported by the minister Albert Thomas. However, the administration of governor Charles Lutaud submitted an alternative proposal to the government that required the company to build blast furnaces in Bône and to pay higher royalties to Algeria. The agreement and specifications for this project were signed early in 1918, with 85% of the capital supplied by Mokta and Hauts Fourneaux de Rouen, and 15% by Denain-Anzin and a consortium of Algerian banks. Two blast furnaces would be built with combined annual capacity of 80,000 tons. However, after

Charles Jonnart Charles Célestin Auguste Jonnart (27 December 1857 – 30 December 1927) was a French politician. Early years Born into a bourgeois family in Fléchin, Pas-de-Calais, Charles Jonnart was educated at Saint-Omer, then in Paris. Interested in th ...

returned to Algeria as governor the project was delayed and eventually cancelled. In May 1919 the company's miners went on strike in solidarity with strikers in other industries, but the strike quickly fizzled out. Mokta el Hadid was the largest mining company in Algeria until 1927, when it was overtaken by the

Société de l'Ouenza The Société de l'Ouenza was an Algerian iron ore mining company founded in 1913 and nationalized in 1966. It exploited rich deposits of high-quality ore at two sites in northeast Algeria near the Tunisian border. The ore was sent by rail to the p ...

. The Mokta el Hadid iron ore mining company was responsible for creation of SACEM in 1929. SACEM (Société anonyme chérifienne d'études minières), based in Casablanca, Morocco, was founded to exploit the Imini manganese mines. The ratio of Société Mokta El Hadid share prices to earnings fluctuated from 3.0 in 1929 up to 11.0 in 1933, falling back to 1.8 by 1937.

Post-World War II

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

(1939–45) the Mokta El Hadid iron ore belonged to the

Mirabaud Group Mirabaud is a Swiss private bank based in Geneva, Switzerland. Mirabaud provides services in wealth management, asset management and brokerage to private clients and institutions around the world. Founded in 1819, it gradually developed into the ...

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

Paris Bourse Euronext Paris, formerly known as the Paris Bourse (), is a regulated securities trading venue in France. It is Europe's second largest stock exchange by market capitalization, behind the London Stock Exchange, as of December 2023. As of 2022, th ...

. 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. Moanda Gabon1

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 The United States Steel Corporation is an American steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It maintains production facilities at several additional locations in the U.S. and Central Europe. The company produces and sells steel products, ...

(49%). A 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 Moanda may refer to * Moanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, a town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo * Moanda, Gabon, a town in Gabon ** Moanda railway station, a train station in Moanda, Gabon ** Moanda Airport, an airport in Moand ...

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. Henri Lafond was assassinated in Paris on 6 March 1963, apparently by an OAS member because he refused to support the OAS with the companies in his group. He was succeeded as head of the Mokta company by Perrineau, who also became head of the Compagnie des Mines de Huaron, in which Mokta had a large stake. Perrineau was president of Mokta until 1970. In 1965 Perrineau presided over the company's centenary celebrations in Côte-d'Ivoire, which were attended by President

Félix Houphouët-Boigny Félix Houphouët-Boigny (; 18 October 1905 – 7 December 1993), affectionately called Papa Houphouët or Le Vieux ("The Old One"), was an Ivorian politician and physician who served as the first List of heads of state of Ivory Coast, pr ...

. In 1965 the company took a minority stake in the company formed to exploit chromium ore in Madagascar, directed by Ugine. In July 1967 France and Niger made agreements that included recognition of a uranium mining concession in Niger to be capitalized 45% by the Atomic Energy Commission, 40% by the private French companies Mokta El Hadid and French Uranium-ore, and 15% by the state of Niger. The exploitation company was Somaïr. Also in 1967 the merger activity between Suez and the Banque de l'Union parisienne caused Suez to become a direct shareholder in Mokta, and also in Huaron and Comuf. In 1968 Mokta joined forces with

Pechiney Pechiney SA was a major aluminium conglomerate based in France. The company was acquired in 2003 by the Alcan Corporation, headquartered in Canada. In 2007, Alcan itself was taken over by mining giant Rio Tinto Alcan. Prior to its acquisitio ...

to form the Péchiney Mokta mining company, which would manage various uranium operations and fund research activity, particularly in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

, Canada. In October 1970 the Société le Nickel, soon after to become the Imetal holding company, took over the Mokta company through a share swap. Perrineau remained a director and advisor. In 1980 Imetal absorbed Mokta, which was renamed Compagnie française de Mokta (CFM). As of 1991 the Compagnie française de Mokta was a wholly owned subsidiary of

COGEMA Orano Cycle, formerly COGEMA (''Compagnie générale des matières nucléaires'') and Areva NC, is a French nuclear fuel company. It is the main subsidiary of Orano S.A. It is an industrial group active in all stages of the uranium fuel cycle, ...

(Compagnie générale des matières nucléaires), a French company involved in mining and processing uranium.

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mokta El Hadid, Societe Mining companies of Algeria Economic history of Algeria Economic history of French Algeria French companies established in 1863 Companies disestablished in 1970