The mayor of Eilat met with the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Employment to request his assistance in converting the Arava Mines into an ‘approved plant' that would entitle it to government grants and permits.  The Arava Mines, owned by Mexican steel company AHMSA, is the only copper mine in Israel and the only heavy industry in the southern Arava.  Located at the site of Timna Mining Company, which operated from the late 1950's until falling copper prices caused its closure in 1984, Arava Mines is both a mine and a processing plant.  The site was reopened last year due to the resurgence of demand for copper and the concomitant rise in its price worldwide, as well as improved technologies that make the mining and processing of copper more cost-effective than in the past. 

The Minister of Industry, Commerce and Employment, Rabbi Eliyahu Yeshai, said that not long ago it was decided to grant the company a mining franchise and that the Ministry's investment centre would do everything possible in order to help out the operation.  The approved plant, upon full production of 22,000 tonnes of copper annually projected by 2010, would employ around 650 employees and be a significant source of regional employment. 

Both the product (shipping) and the staff (consumption) of such an operation would also be aiding the economies of other businesses in the region.  The mines would also be a stable source of income in the area, not subject to the ups and downs of tourism, as well as drawing in professional people of the sort needed to operate the ultra-modern technology.  Engineering degrees and chemistry post-grads are the order of the day, not the black-faced broken-bodied miners of Hollywood films.   Between the benefit to the country, development of the region, and increased local economy, the government has good reason to cooperate with making the Arava Mines feasible and profitable: Owners of AHMSA are carrying out parallel checks for moving the plant to Jordan.  While Jordan’s main copper deposit is safely out of bounds for industry in its Wadi Araba national reserve, just south of that there is a 600 km² area that also contains copper deposits and is being surveyed preparatory to being opened up for bidding by the government.