This came during the inaugural meeting to kick off the project at the headquarters of The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, which was attended by shareholders of the new Alamein Complex for Silicon Products and top officials from the ministry.

This project aims to maximise the value added from the natural resources available in Egypt by producing high-value products instead of importing them.

The complex will be constructed on 200 feddans (​​200 acres) on land owned by the Egyptian Petrochemical Holding Company in New Alamein City, according to a statement released by the petroleum ministry.

It will be implemented through four phases with different production capacities ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 tons of silicon and its derivatives annually.

The country's revenue from the production of metallic silicon will be $3,400 per ton and from the production of polysilicon will be $15,000 per ton compared to sale of quartz – the raw material - at about $15 per ton – Amjad Kamel, the head of the project said.

Kamel added that this project would mainly benefit from Egypt's quartz reserve, estimated at 40 million tons.

The private sector is contributing 30 percent of the investments for the project as part of the Egyptian government's efforts to increase the involvement of the private sector in national and strategic projects, according to Kamel.

The shareholding structure of the new Alamein Complex for Silicon Products includes the Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM), the Egyptian mineral resources authority, (EMRA), the Egyptian Company for Mineral Resources (ECMR), ‎the Metallurgical Industries Holding Company, the Egyptian Ferrous Alloys, in collaboration with Ebdaa for Projects Development, in addition to Libra Capital and Central Desert Mining Company.