Algeria’s military regime continues its headlong rush marked by flashy announcements, fanciful figures, and official narratives disconnected from any industrial reality. The latest episode is the alleged entry into the exploitation and export phase of iron ore from Gara Djebilet, presented as an “economic revolution” and a strategic turning point for Algeria. In reality, this is a massive state lie, built for domestic communication and political propaganda, but completely contradicted by technical, logistical, and industrial facts.
An Ore That Is Entirely Unusable in Its Current State
The first fundamental element carefully glossed over is that Gara Djebilet’s iron ore is highly phosphorous. An ore with a high phosphorus content is unsuitable for standard industrial use, particularly in construction steel, and even more so in steels intended for reinforcement or strategic applications.
Without heavy, complex, and extremely costly dephosphorization processes, which do not currently exist in Algeria at an industrial scale, this ore is simply unsellable on the international market. Announcing massive exports under these conditions amounts either to technical incompetence or to a deliberate manipulation of public opinion.
A Phantom Logistics Chain Spanning Nearly 2,000 Kilometers
Another pillar of this official tale is the transport of the ore from Tindouf to the port of Oran, a journey of nearly 2,000 kilometers. The regime speaks of smooth, regular, and operational rail transport. The reality, however, is stark:
- The railway line is not completed.
- It largely relies on a single-track line.
- Entire sections remain nonexistent or non-operational.
- No heavy infrastructure adapted to large-scale mining traffic is functional.
Speaking of large-scale exports under these conditions borders on communicational delusion.
Absurd Figures With No Industrial Basis
Without hesitation, the Algerian authorities put forward production volumes approaching 10 million tonnes per year. These figures are technically unattainable, even for countries with mature mining, rail, and port infrastructures. At Gara Djebilet, no integrated industrial chain exists, neither upstream in ore processing nor downstream in transport, storage, and export. The official estimates are therefore purely fictitious, designed to mask the regime’s structural economic failure.
Propaganda to Conceal an Economic Dead End
The narrative surrounding Gara Djebilet fits into a well-known pattern: manufacturing imaginary successes to compensate for the absence of a credible economic vision. In the absence of reforms, real diversification, or industrial attractiveness, the military regime recycles the same methods: grandiose announcements, inflated figures, media staging, then silence.
The truth is simple. Gara Djebilet is neither exploited nor exported, and cannot be under current conditions. Everything else is state storytelling.
When Lies Become Public Policy
By persisting in presenting this illusion as a strategic success, the Algerian regime is no longer deceiving experts, investors, or international partners. It is seeking only to mislead its own people, already facing a difficult economic reality.
Gara Djebilet is not a lever for development. It has become the symbol of a system that prefers lies to reform, propaganda to competence, and illusion to truth.
Translated from Abderrazzak Boussaid’s French article – le7tv