The Société Mokta El Hadid was an iron ore mining company in Algeria, and later in other West African countries.

In 1878 the original Mokta El Hadid mine near Bône (now Annaba) was said to be capable of supporting 25% of Europe's steel production.

Later it extended its operations to countries such as Tunisia, Morocco, Niger, Côte-d'Ivoire and Madagascar, and mined manganese, chromium and uranium.

[3] A report by Fournel to the Académie des sciences on 14 May 1848 said, "to the north of Lake F'Zara there is a whole mountain, the Mokta-el-Hadid (the quarry of iron) which emerges from the gneisses and literally presents from foot to top, that is to say over a height of more than one hundred meters, a mass of pure oxidized iron, with no admixture of rock.

Meanwhile, Eugène de Bassano, a Paris entrepreneur better known as Marquis de Bassano, founded the Société Civile des Mines et Hauts Fourneaux des Karezas, which had the concession to exploit a deposit in Meboudja between Bône and Aïn-Mokra (now Berrahal), which was called the Karezas mine.

The company built a narrow-gauge railway to transport the iron ore from the mine to a harbour on the Seybouse River near Bône.

[9] Extensive construction was undertaken at Bône in 1856–69 to build an 80 hectares (200 acres) sheltered port facility to handle the ore from Mokta el Hadid.

By 1924 there were 41,000 and the port was being used to export phosphates, lead and zinc ore.[12] The arrival in large volumes of Algerian ores from Mokta-el-Hadid upset the supply chain in France.

The success at the Firminy plant in making steel rails using only ore from the Algerian mines was a major argument for installation of furnaces based on the Martin process at Le Creusot.

In 1865 Eugène Schneider had reached an agreement with Paulin Talabot to obtain a large supply of Algerian ore, making it possible to start intensive steel production.

[3] Paulin Talabot founded the Société Générale Algérienne (SGA) in 1865 to promote economic growth in the colony of Algeria, which created five villages for French colonists.

It was granted 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of land in exchange for a 100 million franc loan to Napoleon III, which was spent on Algerian public works.

[1] When it started operation the lake's surface elevation would have reached 16 metres (52 ft) in winter, with an area of 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres).

[21] A report published in 1901 said, "The example of Lake Fetzara has been much quoted; its marshy miasma infected the large mining works of Mokta-el-Hadid, decimated the staff, and rendered existence in this locality insupportable.

The report then noted that the improvement could also be attributed in part to better medical attention and the fact that most of the staff commuted to work from Bône.

[21] In 1877 the Mokta El Hadid company gained permission to drain the lake in exchange for free transfer of the reclaimed land.

Between 1867 and 1947 the region produced 30 million metric tons of ore.[23] Alphonse Parran was also involved in one of the first iron ore mines in Kryvbas (then Russia, now Ukraine) in 1881 and the Gafsa phosphate deposits in Tunisia in 1886.

[6] In Tunisia as of 1893 the company owned concessions at Ras Radjid, Bou lanague, Dj Bellif and Ganara in the Kroumine between Tabarka and Cap Serrat.

[17] In the period from 1900 to 1930 the company was among the powerful capitalist groups in the French colonial empire that provided exceptional rates of profit.

André Duby joined as chief engineer of technical services in 1927, then became co-director with Léon de Nervo, and sole director in the 1940s.

[33] When World War I began Mokta-el Hadid was one of only two privately owned French colonial companies other than banks and railways with capital of over 20 million francs, the other being the Société Le Nickel in New Caledonia.

However, the administration of governor Charles Lutaud submitted an alternative proposal to the government that required the company to build blast furnaces in Bône and to pay higher royalties to Algeria.

[35] The agreement and specifications for this project were signed early in 1918, with 85% of the capital supplied by Mokta and Hauts Fourneaux de Rouen, and 15% by Denain-Anzin and a consortium of Algerian banks.

[36] Mokta el Hadid was the largest mining company in Algeria until 1927, when it was overtaken by the Société de l'Ouenza.

[6] SACEM (Société anonyme chérifienne d'études minières), based in Casablanca, Morocco, was founded to exploit the Imini manganese mines.

[38][a] The ratio of Société Mokta El Hadid share prices to earnings fluctuated from 3.0 in 1929 up to 11.0 in 1933, falling back to 1.8 by 1937.

[40] After World War II (1939–45) the Mokta El Hadid iron ore belonged to the Mirabaud Group.

In 1962 he became vice-president and, at the end of 1962 replaced Henri Lafond as president of the SACEM subsidiary that exploited the Imini manganese deposits in Morocco.