Office Chérifien des Phosphates and the Khouribga mines
Office Chérifien des Phosphates y minas de Khouribga
- Date
- 1920 · confidence high
- Place
- Khouribga, Beni Mellal-Khenifra, Morocco
- Credited to
- French protectorate of Morocco; Office Chérifien des Phosphates
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
The sedimentary phosphate deposits at Khouribga, found in the 1910s, were mined from 1921 by the state agency created in 1920. Morocco now holds most of the world's phosphate rock reserves, the basis of fertilisers.
The date of discovery (1914-1917, by protectorate geologists) is imprecise; the c. 1920 date is that of the creation of the OCP, which is secure. The world reserve figure depends on the USGS estimate.
What it led to
- phosphate fertilisers for world agriculture
- a Moroccan economy based on phosphate exports
- geopolitical debate over phosphate reserves as a non-renewable resource