Bou Craa

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}}Template:Main other Bou Craa (also transliterated as Bo Craa, Bu Craa or Boukra) (Template:Langx, Berber: ⴱⵓⴽⵔⴰⵄ, Template:Langx) is a town in Western Sahara, south-east of the main city of El Aaiún. It is inhabited almost exclusively by employees of phosphate company Phosboucraa, a subsidiary of Morocco's OCP Group.

Historically located in the Saguia el-Hamra region, Bou Craa is the site of a phosphate deposit of over 1.7 billion tons. Mining operations by Phosboucraa started in 1972.<ref name="PazzanitaHodges1994">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.Template:Citation needed

The town became part of the Moroccan-controlled zone in the April 1976 partition resulting from the Madrid Accords.<ref name="PazzanitaHodges1994"/> 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 this transportation system several times. These attacks gradually ceased in the early 1980s when the town become enclosed by the Moroccan Wall, which consolidated Moroccan control over the north-western part of Western Sahara (the so-called "Useful Triangle"<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>). Mining resumed on a reduced scale in July 1982.<ref name="PazzanitaHodges1994"/>

Today, the mine produces around 3 million tonnes annually, which represents 10% of Morocco's total production.<ref name="BHP">WESTERN SAHARA: Bou Craa Phosphate Mine Template:Webarchive, BHP Billiton Watch, November 15, 2010.</ref> The phosphates are transported to the coast by an automated conveyor belt. Approximately Template:Convert long, the belt is the longest in the world and dust blown from it is visible from space.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Twin towns

• Template:Flagicon Castro Urdiales, Spain
• Template:Flagicon Llodio, Spain

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