Rich deposits
Commodity discoveries in Western Sahara
22nd August 2011 18:10
Diamonds and gold complicate simmering conflict
Rabat / Granada - Rich deposits of diamonds, gold, uranium, copper, nickel, zinc, lead and cobalt were discovered by Metalex Ventures Canadian mining companies in the Western Sahara occupied by Morocco. Mainly in the controlled by the Polisario Front independence movement, Democratic Republic of Western Sahara as well as in border regions of Mauritania. Morocco is located in the state for decades in conflict with the Polisario Front.
In 2005, the Canadian Government of Morocco had been entrusted with the search. Over four months of flight hours, the Canadians will still need to create a space of more than 17,000 square kilometers in the air to map by means of magnetic and radiological measurements.
A 2.6 billion years old crater of an extinct volcano to contain kimberlite diamonds and gold mine of Tasiast (Mauritania), 21 million ounces of precious metal. The also will need diamond mining equipment to mine in that area.
Since the withdrawal of Spanish colonial power in Mauritania in 1975 occupied only a portion of the populated region of the Sahrawi desert in southern Morocco. King Hassan II called then for the "Green March" in which hundreds of thousands of Moroccans underpinned by foot to their claim to the breakaway region.
Delivered until the armistice on UN mediation in 1991, the Frente Polisario - supported by Algeria - fierce battles with the Moroccan army. In negotiations, the parties have so far not really converge. Morocco's King Mohammed VI. wants to grant maximum autonomy, while Polisario insists on a UN peace plan in the referendum on independence set. (Jam, DER STANDARD, print edition, 08/23/2011)
