Egypt has begun the implementation of the silicon production complex in New Alamein City, according to a statement by the Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ministry.
The first phase of the project will be carried out with about $172 million in investments.
The Egyptian project production capacity will be 45,000 tons per year.
The project is to be built on a 200-feddan area in four stages, with the aim of providing locally-made products of silicon and its derivatives.
The value of the final product from the first phase is estimated to stand at $340 per ton, according to the project’s feasibility study.
The second phase of the project will be dedicated to the production of silicon derivatives with an initial production capacity of 60,000 to 100,000 tons a year. The third stage will cover the production of polycrystalline silicon with an initial capacity of 10,000 annually.
As for the fourth stage, it will witness the establishment of a complex for small- and medium-scale industries, with the purpose of exporting the final production.
Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM), the Egyptian mineral resources authority (EMRA), Egyptian Company for Mineral Resources (ECMR), the Metallurgical Industries Holding Company, and the Egyptian Ferrous Alloys, in collaboration with Ebdaa for Projects Development, in addition to Libra Capital and Central Desert Mining Company are main shareholding of the new project.
The complex is one of the major national strategic projects in the petroleum sector, in which the state and private sector cooperate to make use of domestic resources, instead of exporting them, Egypt’s petroleum minister noted.
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