Phosphates and the world's longest conveyor belt | MyFDL

I started out by wondering about TSP – Trisodium phosphate – in cleaning solution. Phosphates are an environmental hazard when they end up in rivers and lakes because blue-green algae just love it and crowd out everything else, eating up all the oxygen in the water. Phosphates in fertilizer are an integral component of 'Green Revolution' agriculture. Historical sources for phosphates were bones (a major English import at one time) and guano – bird and bat droppings (e.g. Nauru ). Then I discovered that Bou Craa in Western Sahara has the major geological concentration of phosphates on the planet. There is a 150km long conveyor belt to move the mineral west to the coast at Laayoune-Plage. Fascinating, huh. Well "the rest of the story" is this. Morocco (King Mohammed VI) claims Western Sahara ever since the Spanish colonialists left in 1976. 'Rebels', The Front Polisario, since 1979 "recognized by the United Nations as the representative of the people of Western Sahara" (WikiP), have sabotaged the conveyor several times in the past. Bou Craa and the strip mines and the conveyor belt are now cut off by a 2,700 km long wall- actually 6 walls and minefields – 'The Wall of Shame'. "Many of Western Sahara's native Sahrawi people live as refugees in camps in the Tindouf Province of Algeria, where the POLISARIO is based." Phosphates are absolutely essential to plant growth, and all life. Since the 'Green Revolution' phosphates have made it possible to sustain 7 billion people – not possible without phosphate and nitrogen fertilizer. Phosphates are another limited resource that is getting low – particularly the US source in Florida, 3/4 of the US supply. The world's largest phosphate mines there are being called out by environmentalists – no more expansion. All the evils of strip mining are present – colossal environmental damage, ignored by government and the corporations. "A million tons of mine waste, containing lows levels of radioactivity, are already piled up at dump sites around the state, and disputes are growing over promised mine cleanups. Rivers have dried up, and settling ponds have leaked." *Phosphate: A Critical Resource Misused and Now Running Low Without expansion, the mines there must close. Once the Florida mines close the US will necessarily go elsewhere for phosphates. Most likely Morocco and Mohammed VI (Alaouite dynasty since 1666), and independence for Western Sahara be damned. The constitutional monarchy of Morocco is not necessarily the bad guys and the Front Polisario is not necessarily the good guys – it's a complex situation currently under a truce agreement. Morocco is becoming more constitutional and less monarchy; The Front Polisario has gone from socialist to free-market capitalist. But the money issue is the phosphates. And it's a global issue.

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