Algeria has opened a railway line for the development of the Gara Djebilet deposit

Algeria has opened the 950-kilometer western mining railway Gara Djebilet-Tindouf-Béchar, Gulf Industry reports.

The new line crosses a large desert area and forms a key logistics corridor for Algeria’s mining sector. It allows iron ore to be transported from the Gara Djebilet mine through the city of Bechar to northern ports and industrial facilities, including the Tosyali Holding steel complex near Oran.

As Bloomberg notes, the railway line was built in cooperation with China and is key to developing iron ore deposits in order to diversify the economy.

This move gives the green light for the first shipments of ore from the Gara Djebilet mine near the Moroccan border, an initiative that has been under discussion for decades. Among the companies involved in the broader project are Feraal, a subsidiary of the Algerian state mining company Sonarem, and China’s Sinosteel.

Algeria is focusing on developing its mining industry. More than three-quarters of the country’s exports and about half of its government revenues typically come from hydrocarbons, making the country vulnerable to volatile energy prices and forcing it to look for other avenues.

Earlier, it was reported that Algeria plans to commission a mining and processing plant for iron ore from the Gara Djebilet deposit (Tindouf province) by the end of April 2026. The enterprise, managed by Sonarem, a national mining industrial group, will process up to 4 million tons of ore per year. Sonarem CEO Belkacem Soltani reported that several large international companies from the US, India, and China have shown significant interest in investing and cooperating in Algeria’s mining sector, particularly in Gara Djebilet.