The good data for 2021 is the benchmark for continuing to grow in a sector with an investment of more than 13 billion dirhams.
Morocco has found a new niche in the mining sector with which to further strengthen its economic situation. In order to continue the recovery from the blow dealt by the pandemic two years ago, Rabat combs the market for opportunities that allow the Kingdom to continue in its position as a regional leader. To the significant increase in exports in the food sector is now added the mining sector which, with an investment of more than 13,000 million dirhams – a little over a billion euros – can become one of the pillars of the Moroccan economy.
They may seem like big words, but you have to take into account that mining contributes more than a quarter of the total export volume of the whole country.
In 2021, 26%, which comes to the same thing, 86 billion dirhams – nearly eight billion euros – from exports were thanks to mining, almost all of which came from phosphates.
If you look at the total turnover of the mining sector, the data climbs to more than 100 billion dirhams and the production volume reached 41 million tons, of which 38 were only phosphates.
Morocco’s Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Leila Benali, stressed the importance of mining and its economic and social development at all levels, national, regional and local.
Moreover, despite the good data obtained by Morocco last year, Benali points to an increase in investments with a view to continued growth in 2023: “mining prospecting, with the exception of phosphates, requires colossal investments and very important. Indeed, apart from the aforementioned phosphate, mining investments are very low, according to the minister of the kingdom.
“Investments for exploration and research in the mining sector, excluding phosphate, amount to 1 billion dirhams (out of a total of 13 billion) by 2021.” This should not be a worrying fact since , as mentioned above, the general calculation is very positive for Morocco. However, Leila Benali assures that, despite the good global data, mining investments in things that are not phosphates “remain below the level necessary for prospecting since the richness of the Moroccan subsoil is due to this”.