The Mineral Industry of Morocco & Western Sahara in 1997, USGS
THE MINERAL INDUSTRY OF MOROCCO AND WESTERN SAHARA By Bernadette Michalski Morocco is the world’s third largest producer of phosphate million1 to $488 million. rock, following the United States and China. The nation also has Phosphate exports rose by 45%, to $97 million from $67 a significant capacity for conversion of phosphate rock into million. Spain, the United States, and Mexico were the principal downstream chemicals. Other mineral production includes phosphate markets by order of volume. Phosphate exports anthracite coal, antimony, barite, cobalt, copper, fluorspar, iron accounted for nearly 31% of Morocco’s total exports. ore, lead, manganese, salt, silver, and zinc. The mineral industry The major mineral commodity imports continued to be crude oil is Morocco’s largest foreign-exchange-earning sector and usually and petroleum products. In 1997, the principal source for accounts for about 35% of foreign trade and about 6% of the gross imported crude oil was Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. About 900,000 domestic product. The mining sector employs 46,600 workers. barrels of Iraqi crude oil was purchased during the United Current mining legislation in Morocco is based on Mining Nations-approved Food for Oil Agreement between August and Code Bill No. 1-73-412 of August 13, 1973. Regulations December 1997. The Islamic Development Bank was the source concerning the management of petroleum and natural gas for financing oil imports (Arab Petroleum Research Center, 1998, resources were revised in 1992 to provide further incentives for p.280). Algeria was the principal source for liquefied petroleum international companies. The revised law reduced the gas.
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