Silica in Anbar: A multi-billion dollar resource awaiting investment
Silica in Anbar: A multi-billion dollar resource awaiting investment
2026-02-06 01:44
Shafaq News – Anbar
Iraq’s Anbar province is studying the possibility of utilizing its natural resources, especially silica, through extraction and processing, in order to take a step towards increasing its financial revenues and reducing its dependence on oil in the country’s general budgets .
Anbar Provincial Council member Adnan al-Kubaisi says that silica in the province is still not being properly utilized, even though Anbar is one of the world’s largest regions in terms of reserves of this high-purity material .
Al-Kubaisi explained during an interview with Shafaq News Agency that Anbar “is among the first in the world in terms of the quantities discovered of pure silica, as its purity exceeds 98% and reaches 99% in some locations, which is among the highest purity rates required in modern technological industries .”
He adds that “the quantities discovered so far are estimated at about 600 million tons, with expectations that these figures will rise to one billion tons or more, given the large quantities underground that appear as drilling and exploration work expands .”
Al-Kubaisi points out that “the real investment in this wealth requires providing a suitable infrastructure, in addition to ensuring long-term security stability in the extraction areas, as well as the need to activate cooperation between the local government in Anbar and the federal government to launch strategic projects in this sector, instead of being satisfied with selling the raw material at low prices .”
For his part, economist Ahmed Al-Karbouli told Shafaq News Agency that “investing in silica represents a rare economic opportunity for Iraq in light of global shifts towards technological industries and clean energy .”
He points out that “the main challenges lie in the absence of advanced manufacturing industries, weak industrial infrastructure, in addition to administrative complexities and investor hesitation due to security and procedural concerns .”
He affirms that “establishing national factories to convert silica into advanced industrial products will provide thousands of job opportunities and reduce the country’s dependence on oil,” stressing that converting the raw material into finished products will make Iraq an important player in global supply chains for technology and renewable energy .”
He points out that “the development of this sector should be through the establishment of advanced national factories that can generate billions of dollars in revenue annually, in addition to providing tens of thousands of job opportunities, revitalizing the industrial, transportation and services sectors, as well as placing Iraq in the position of a key partner in global technological industries that are the engine of the modern economy .”
Iraq possesses huge reserves of high-purity silica, a key material used in vital industries, including electronic chips, artificial intelligence processors, solar panels, and fiber optic cables used in modern communications .
Experts believe that continuing to export silica as a raw material represents a significant economic loss, as the value of a raw ton does not exceed about $120, while its value after manufacturing rises to more than $20,000 per ton, when it is converted into industrial silicon or advanced electronic products .
With increasing global demand for materials used in digital industries and renewable energy, the Anbar desert today appears to have a historic opportunity to transform its natural wealth into a strategic development project that could change the features of the local and national economy in the coming years .
shafaq.com
