Ammon News - Mining industries contributed 7.7 percent to Jordan's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 and comprised 19 percent of its total exports, according to a paper released by the Energy and Minerals Regulatory Commission (EMRC).

The paper, presented at the fourth edition of the Arab Mining and Minerals Conference currently underway in Amman, indicated that the country's 2015-2025 Mineral Resources Strategy envisions the mining sector's share in GDP at 11 percent by 2025.

Jordan is also the seventh largest producer of potash (potassium chloride) in the world. The Arab Potash Company was the largest Jordanian exporter in 2019, with a contribution to the GDP of 1.6 percent, according to the paper.

Wafa al-Bakhit, an EMRC commissioner, noted in the paper that Jordan's phosphate production contributed 1 percent to its GDP while the Jordan Bromine Company, the Kingdom's first and only producer and manufacturer of bromine and bromine derivatives, added 0.9 percent to GDP.

The natural raw materials used in the fertilizer and acid industries help in operating 85 fertilizer factories in the Kingdom, whose products are exported to many countries of the world, especially Japan.

In Jordan, there are five fertilizer manufacturers whose total revenues in 2019 amounted to about 260 million dinars, while mining rights amounted to 105, and the number of licenses for quarries stood at 240.