AMMAN, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Jordan's Arab Potash Company (APC) signed on Monday an 813-million-U.S. dollar joint investment agreement with U.S. chemical manufacturing company Albemarle to boost bromine production in the country, the state-run Petra news agency reported.
The five-year, four-phase project, to start this month, aims to increase the production capacity of bromine and specialized derivative materials of Jordan Bromine, a joint venture between the APC and Albemarle, while providing necessary production requirements, Petra reported.
As one of the largest U.S. investments in Jordan's mining sector to date, it will create 650 permanent jobs and hundreds of temporary positions during construction, Petra reported.
According to Petra, Jordan's Prime Minister Jaafar Hassan, U.S. Ambassador to Jordan Yael Lempert, some senior Jordanian officials, as well as officials from the above-mentioned three companies, attended the signing ceremony.
At the ceremony, Hassan called mining "a key pillar" in Jordan's Economic Modernization Vision and noted promising investment opportunities in potash, phosphate, manufacturing industries, and green ammonia in the country, Petra reported.
