Bou Craa (also transliterated as Bo Craa, Bou Cra, Bu Craa or Boukra) (, Berber: ⴱⵓⴽⵔⴰⵄ, ) is a town in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, southeast of the main city of El Aaiún. Historically located in the Saguia el-Hamra region, Bou Craa is the site of a phosphate deposit of over 1.7 billion tons. The town is inhabited almost exclusively by employees of the mining company Phosboucraa, a subsidiary of Morocco's state-owned OCP Group.
Phosboucraa started phosphate mining in 1972. The mine produces around 3 million tonnes annually, 10% of Morocco's total production.WESTERN SAHARA: Bou Craa Phosphate Mine , BHP Billiton Watch, November 15, 2010. Output material is transported to the coast by an automated conveyor belt. Approximately long, the belt is the longest in the world and dust blown from it is visible from space.
History
During the Spanish colonization of the area (see Spanish Sahara), many early recruits of Sahrawi nationalist movements such as the Movement for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Wadi el Dhahab and Polisario Front were workers in the phosphate mines.
The town became part of the Moroccan-occupied zone in the April 1976 partition resulting from the Madrid Accords. It has remained in Moroccan hands, though mining was paused in 1976 as a result of Polisario guerilla attacks. During the Western Sahara War, the Polisario sabotaged and disabled the conveyor belt several times. These attacks gradually ceased in the early 1980s when the town become enclosed by the Moroccan Wall, which consolidated Moroccan occupation over the north-western part of Western Sahara (the so-called "Useful Triangle"). Mining resumed on a reduced scale in July 1982.
Twin towns Castro Urdiales, Spain Llodio, Spain
References
External links World’s Longest Conveyor Belt System, from the Bou Craa mine to the port at El Marsa, Western Sahara. Article at NASA Earth Observatory, January 21, 2023