3 ms·

Phosphorus is essential to life and actually quite rare in Earth’s crust, and probably the bottleneck element to biomass on the planet. It’s a much more critica

by fmajid 5y ago

Phosphorus is essential to life and actually quite rare in Earth’s crust, and probably the bottleneck element to biomass on the planet. It’s a much more critical non renewable resource than oil or strategic minerals but is completely off the radar if most policy makers. Just search for “phosphorus bottleneck”, it makes for sobering reading. The Office Chérifien des Phosphates, personal property of the King of Morocco, is the world’s largest producer. Occupying Western Sahara costs the Moroccan state more than it brings in taxes, maybe this explains why.

spookthesunset 5y ago
I really hope space mining takes off in my lifetime. The idea of having near unlimited quantities of “rare” earth elements will bring so much coolness to the world.
- technofiend 5y ago
  I think the first trillionaires will be born from mining the Kuiper belt.
timinou 5y ago
OCP is the Moroccan government's property, not the king's (the king's properties are generally under the Al Mada group). He still has a day in its strategy but he doesn't pocket the money the way he would for Al Mada companies. Also, most of the ore is not in contested territories. You can look up the sludge pipeline for a more modern take on exporting phosphates that was built 15 years ago, it's not in the Sahara. The biggest natural resource of contention there is fish, not phosphates. That industry is huge and extractive, and not talked mucb about. Also the Western Sahara issue is geopolitical more than anything else. If that country were a thing Morocco would be surrounded by Algeria (the separatists are kept alive because of Algeria's support at this point, it's a puppet state of the Algerian military). And yeah it's an important resource that will become increasingly important as climate change and overpopulation become current issues. Hopefully it doesn't bring the bad juju that other non renewable resources have brought on developing countries

by fmajid 5y ago

spookthesunset 5y ago

I really hope space mining takes off in my lifetime. The idea of having near unlimited quantities of “rare” earth elements will bring so much coolness to the world.

technofiend 5y ago
I think the first trillionaires will be born from mining the Kuiper belt.

timinou 5y ago

OCP is the Moroccan government's property, not the king's (the king's properties are generally under the Al Mada group). He still has a day in its strategy but he doesn't pocket the money the way he would for Al Mada companies. Also, most of the ore is not in contested territories. You can look up the sludge pipeline for a more modern take on exporting phosphates that was built 15 years ago, it's not in the Sahara. The biggest natural resource of contention there is fish, not phosphates. That industry is huge and extractive, and not talked mucb about. Also the Western Sahara issue is geopolitical more than anything else. If that country were a thing Morocco would be surrounded by Algeria (the separatists are kept alive because of Algeria's support at this point, it's a puppet state of the Algerian military). And yeah it's an important resource that will become increasingly important as climate change and overpopulation become current issues. Hopefully it doesn't bring the bad juju that other non renewable resources have brought on developing countries