Doha: A Qatari-Turkish zinc smelting facility, first in Turkey, was inaugurated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday in the southeastern city of Siirt.
Erdogan said that this factory is the largest in Siirt and the surrounding region, noting that this factory was built with a Turkish-Qatari partnership, and will meet about half of Turkey's zinc needs, media reports said.
"The facility will reduce Turkey's zinc imports by producing 90,000 tons in the first phase, and we aim to increase capacity over time to 250,000 tons, and raise the investment amount to $500 million," Al Jazeera quoted Erdogan in a report.
Through the joint Turkish-Qatari investment - with an initial value of about $102 million - the only zinc alloy production facility in Turkey was built on a 145-acre land.
“500 people will work in the factory in Siirt, and about 2500 in the mines in the cities of Hakkari and Şırnak, pointing out that the number of employment will rise to 7,500 people when other investments are completed,” Yasin Aktay, Honorary President of Lineer Metal AS, told Al Jazeera.
