ICL signs Dead Sea harvest deal

Dead Sea Works signed a deal with Holland Shallow Seas Dredging Ltd. Tuesday to operate a dredger to harvest salt from Pond 5 in the southern part of the Dead Sea.

Dead Sea Works, a subsidiary of Israel Chemicals, will be implementing the project after warning years ago that Pond 5’s water level would eventually flood the surrounding hotels if the salt there was not harvested.

The agreement will enable the company “to continue to meet our commitments to the State of Israel and to preserve the level of the water,” Noam Goldstein, senior vice president of the firm’s potash and magnesium department said.

The Dutch company will build the dredger, which is estimated to cost $280 million. The dredger is expected to be 24 x 120 meters and will be operated continuously by tens of employees who will be recruited by the contracting company.

The dredger will remove approximately 5.5 million cubic meters of salt per year from the southern basin of the Dead Sea.

The salt harvesting project is considered one of the most complex and expensive infrastructure projects in the country and will cost approximately $2 billion. According to the agreement signed with the State of Israel, ICL will finance 80% of the cost of the project.

Operations of the salt harvest are expected to begin in the first half of 2019.