Production of minerals–copper, potash and bromides–will reach an annual total of $40, 000, 000 by 1958 and will shortly become Israel’s second largest dollar earner abroad, Mordecai Bentov, Israel’s Minister of Development, told the Parliament.
Mr. Bentov informed the Parliament that an Israel Natural Resources Advisory Council was being established to assist the government in planning the development of Israel’s mineral resources. The advisory unit will be headed by Britain’s Sir Benjamin Lockspeiser, former chairman of the European Council for the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, and will include outstanding scientists from abroad, including United Nations experts, and from Israel.
Oil prospecting is scheduled to be speeded up, Mr. Bentov declared, and private oil drilling companies now in the field will sink ten new wells in the next six months. By the end of next year, he continued, the port of Elath on the Gulf of Akaba will be built up to a point where it will be able to load and unload 10, 000 freighters. It is expected that by the end of 1957 Elath will have handled 150, 000 tons of cargo.
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