A new transportation system will cut the cost of sending potash from the Dead Sea to Ashdod port by more than $5 million.
An 18-kilometer conveyor belt, now under construction, will haul the potash, Israel’s principal row material export, from the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, up to a railway depot in the Negev hills.
Most of the 1.7 million tons exported annually is now trucked over mountainous roads to the depot, where it is loaded onto the railroad for the last leg of its journey to Ashdod on the Mediterranean coast. The Dead Sea Works exports potash to Europe and America, mainly for agricultural use.
The new $20 million conveyor belt, which will simplify the journey to the railway terminal at Mishor Rotem in the Negev hills, is being financed through a consortium of British banks via Israel’s Bank Hapoalim, with a $13 million guarantee from the British government’s Export Credits Guarantee Department.
The first stage of the automated belt was completed at the beginning of January, and the company estimates that the entire project will be ready in a year’s time.
The 18-kilometer open mineral conveyor belt, being built by a British company, Cable Belt Ltd., represents a unique project of its type, according to the Dead Sea Works, due to its considerable length and the difficult terrain it crosses. The belt will rise 1,800 meters in an area of steep cliffs and deep gullies.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
