A remarkable Turkish report stated that Libya, with its limited population, has important reserves of minerals and ores, some of which are rare, and that are in need of large investments and advanced technologies to benefit from them.
The Turkish Anadolu news agency reviewed the natural resources that Libya has, noting that this country was for this reason “since ancient times the subject of international ambitions”.
The Turkish agency wrote that Libya “is not just a vast desert in the southern Mediterranean that produces nothing but oil and a little gas, as some believe, but rather has important mineral wealth but most of it is untapped, like gold, uranium, iron ore and other minerals, so it was from ancient times International ambition”.
In this context, the report pointed out that Libya is “the fourth largest African country in terms of area after Algeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan, as it sits on an area of approximately 1.760 million square kilometers, in the north of the continent, and is inhabited by more than 6.5 million people”.
Libya also possesses “a long coast overlooking the Mediterranean Sea of 1770 km, and provides it with important fish wealth that was not exploited in the required manner, especially at the level of the Gulf of Sirte, which has a large area and Libya has a monopoly on sovereignty”.
The United States’ objection to Tripoli extending its territorial waters in this Gulf during the Qaddafi era, was “mostly for political reasons”.
The Anadolu news agency noted that Libya was one of the first countries in the Mediterranean “to discover oil and gas in large quantities off its coast, similar to the Bouri oil field, which was discovered in 1976, and is considered the largest of its kind in the Mediterranean”.
And monitored that this country is also abundant with “important mining reserves, especially of gypsum and iron, which enter into the manufacture of several building-related materials, such as steel, cement, glass, and ceramics”.
The report pointed out that Libya, with its infighting in 2011, and the international economic blockade it suffered before that “needs extensive reconstruction, especially as it is an oil and gas exporting country, and it has important reserves in hard currency, in addition to iron and steel factories and also for cement, not to mention Regarding iron ore, gypsum and silica sand mines, “the report pointed out that the reconstruction in this country requires only” a minimum level of security”.
The report put a description of this process that begins with restoring stability, then “attracting international companies with expertise to rebuild what was destroyed by the war, in parallel with opening domestic and foreign private investment, and focusing on the electricity, construction and public works sectors, in the first stage, given the importance of building the infrastructure that on which the state’s economy is based”.
The report quoted the US Energy Agency, that the Libyan shale oil stocks “raised the country’s reserves from 48 billion barrels to 74 billion barrels, making it the first Arab in terms of shale oil reserves and the fifth globally, after Russia, the United States, China and Argentina”.
Ironically, the Turkish agency pointed out that this shale oil “is located northwest of Libya and in the southwest, which means that the future of Libyan oil will move from the province of Burqa to the provinces of Tripoli (west) and Fezzan (southwest)”.
The report added that adding shale gas raises “Libyan gas reserves to three times, from 55 trillion cubic feet to 177 trillion cubic feet, by adding 122 trillion cubic feet of reserves recoverable from the rocks”.
Accordingly, Libya ranks second in Africa with respect to natural gas at about 8 trillion cubic meters, after South Africa at 13 trillion cubic meters, and before Algeria, whose estimated gas wealth is 6.5 trillion cubic meters.
The report reviewed the Libyan reserves of iron ore, indicating that it possesses huge reserves that “exceed even the reserves of Mauritania, as it amounts to 3.5 billion tons, with the ratio of iron among the rock components reaching 35-55 percent, according to the Libyan Oil and Gas Council”.
In this regard, the agency also pointed out that the iron mines were discovered “in the southwest of Libya, especially in the Tarot area of Barak al Shati, north of Sebha”.
The report was based on the Libyan Oil and Gas Council confirming the presence of “uranium mines in the southwest of Libya in the western Awaynat area near the city of Ghat, the border with Algeria”.
The Turkish report stopped at uranium, noting that it is one of the reasons that France is interested in the Fezzan region, “which contains uranium, not to mention oil and gas”.
The agency found evidence of gold ores “in the eastern Awaynat area, near the triangle of the Libyan border with Egypt and Sudan,” as well as evidence of gold and manganese “in the Tebesty mountains from the Libyan side on the border with Chad”.
The report added, warning that “Libyan gold in Tebesty is subject to looting from the African researchers for the yellow metal, who roam the Sahara from Sudan in the east to Mauritania in the west, passing through Chad, Libya, Niger and Algeria to explore for gold by simple means”.
The Turkish report on Libya’s lost natural resources in the same region found what are called “rare earths or rare elements”, which are used in the manufacture of advanced nuclear and electronic technology such as smart phones and optical cells amplifiers used in the manufacture of solar panels.
In this regard, it was said that China repeats “the production of 90 percent of the rare elements formed from 17 chemical elements, and the United States suffers from a fatal dependency on Beijing in this field, as it imports 80 percent of its needs.
Therefore, Washington is searching for alternatives, and Libya may be one of the future these alternatives”.
In conclusion, the report reached the conclusion that Libya’s vast reserves of iron, uranium, gold, oil, rock gas and rare elements, not to mention groundwater resources and long sunny hours to produce solar energy, make it the subject of international ambitions, especially in light of its small population and conflict between them”.
