The Société du Djebel-Djérissa (SDD) is a Tunisian iron ore mining company founded in 1899 that began operations in 1907.

[2] The 900 metres (3,000 ft) Jebel Djérissa is a partial dome of limestone about 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of El Kef.

[2] The 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) gauge railway from the Djérissa mine to the port of La Goulette (Tunis) is 215 kilometres (134 mi) long.

[6] On 13 June 1907, Philippe de Cerner, director of Mokta-el-Hadid, arrived at the mine, where 1,000 workers of all types were engaged in "feverish activity".

They had already extracted 30,000 tons of ore, the post & telegraphs office had been opened since 1 May 1907, and the engineers expected the railway works to be completed for a first shipment in January 1908.

[8] The first train carrying ore from the mine to the newly built quays at La Goulette arrived in March 1908.

[2] These were poured into skips mounted on trolleys, which then dumped the ore into galleries 140 by 40 metres (460 by 130 ft) with a total storage capacity of about 80,000 tons.

During the early part of the war, the storage and embarkation facilities at La Goulette suffered serious damage and wrecks near the wharf made it inaccessible to large vessels.

[14] Henri Lafond was chairman and chief executive officer of the Société du Djebel-Djérissa from 1945 to 1962, and director of various other companies.

[16] The village of Jerissa was built from scratch in a barren valley dominated by the brown silhouette of the Jebel Djérissa, the iron mountain.

[2] It developed into a French town with a church and cemetery, red tiles, play circles, three tennis courts and a bowling alley.