Washington's phosphate programme counts American jobs. Nobody has counted what Tunisia gets
On 8 August the American embassy in Tunis offered a grant of up to 1,536,511 dollars to attract private American capital into Tunisian phosphate. La Presse says the documents behind it target more than 100 million dollars and a 30 to 40 percent stake in PhosCo, the Australian company developing the Gasaat deposit in Kasserine. Four documents describe money around Tunisian phosphate, and they put their numbers on different parties.
Where they agree
None of the four documents describes phosphate coming out of the ground at Gasaat. The American grant is still open for applications and is there to find investors, not to mine rock. PhosCo has a resource estimate and a 2022 scoping study, and has drilled four of nine prospects. La Presse says neither American figure is capital already placed in a Tunisian mine, and the unions are talking about the existing state mines rather than about Gasaat.
Where they split
The American notice and PhosCo both describe Gasaat as something to be financed. La Presse reads the same documents and concludes that the sums are targets rather than commitments, so two accounts of one programme disagree about whether anything has been decided. PhosCo and La Presse are talking about the deposit in Kasserine, while the unions are talking about the state company that already mines phosphate and never mention Gasaat. The timescales differ as widely: PhosCo's scoping study sketches 46 years of production, and the unions want their money before 5 September.
What nobody is saying
The programme's documents, as La Presse reports them, put numbers on the American side: 15 to 25 million dollars of American equipment exports, and 75 to 125 manufacturing jobs in the United States. The same account gives no equivalent figure for Tunisia, and instead asks with what level of control, and with what share of the value created in the country. Radio Gafsa, the public network station that carries the notice, never mentions the state phosphate company in its report.
The notice, carried by the public network station Radio Gafsa, offers a single grant of between 1,000,000 and 1,536,511 dollars over 18 to 24 months. The money is for transparent private investment in Tunisian phosphate, for technical standards in the later stages of production, and for steadier global supply chains. It is aimed at American and international non-profit bodies, for-profit companies, universities and research institutions with experience in project finance, commercial diplomacy or mining sector development, and applications were due by 2 September.
”دعم الاستثمار الشفاف للقطاع الخاص في قطاع الفسفاط في تونس”support for transparent private sector investment in the phosphate sector in Tunisia
The company reports a resource of 166.6 million tonnes at an average grade of 20.6 percent phosphorus pentoxide, stated under JORC, the Australian industry code governing how mineral resources may be reported. It says itself that only four of Gasaat's nine prospects have been drilled far enough to confirm the resource, and a 2022 scoping study sketched 1.5 million tonnes a year over 46 years. The company puts Gasaat about 210 kilometres southwest of Tunis and 35 kilometres from the nearest rail connection, on the line to the port of La Goulette-Radès.
The analysis warns against reading the notice as an investment. The more than 100 million dollars and the 30 to 40 percent stake are targets the programme is meant to help reach, and Washington is not saying the United States is investing today but that it is financing the mechanism to find and structure the investors. If the target is met PhosCo's ownership changes, and the ore stays Tunisian, but the analysis says a legitimate economic question then arises about who controls the company developing the project.
”les 1,536 million de dollars ne constituent pas un investissement déjà réalisé dans une mine tunisienne”the 1.536 million dollars do not constitute an investment already made in a Tunisian mine
The unions said a three-day strike notice would be issued for 1, 2 and 3 September, citing negotiations that have stalled and several demands left unanswered. They ask for the school-return allowance to be paid, together with the annual extra payment known as the fourteenth month, and an advance of 600 dinars on allowances and wages. They want the payments before 5 September and point to the difficult social and financial circumstances of many staff and their families.