Title: Mining in Jordan: challenges and prospects

Authors: Rami Alrawashdeh; Salah Al-Thyabat

Addresses: Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mining Engineering, Al-Hussien Bin Talal University, P.O. Box 20, Ma'an, Jordan ' Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mining Engineering, Al-Hussien Bin Talal University, P.O. Box 20, Ma'an, Jordan

Abstract: The main objective of this paper was to measure the linkages of the mining industry in the Jordanian economy and to determine whether any of the industry sub-sectors can be considered as key sectors. The paper showed that mining had a strong forward and backward linkage to the whole economy and five sub-sectors were considered as the key sectors. These were crude oil and refinery (2.90), transportation (2.58), water and electricity (2.42), livestock products (2.32) and mining (2.18). In case of further processing of mining output, the paper showed that after all phosphate ore has been processed there was a dramatic increase in income multiplier of fertilisers from 2.8 to 6.67 and a slight increase in output and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) multipliers of fertilisers from 2.12 to 2.43 and from 2.0 to 2.45 respectively. Finally, the paper sheds some light on some other challenges facing the mining industry in Jordan.

Keywords: mining industry; Jordan; input–output analysis; forward linkage; backward linkage; key sectors; crude oil; oil refining; transport; water; electricity; livestock products; phosphate ore; fertilisers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMME.2012.052437

International Journal of Mining and Mineral Engineering, 2012 Vol.4 No.2, pp.116 - 138

Received: 07 May 2012
Accepted: 23 Nov 2012
Published online: 24 Mar 2013 *

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