Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Moroccans defend right to mine

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While visiting one of their largest phosphate rock customers, a Moroccan delegation from mining company OCP Group has also used the visit to provide a company perspective on what is proving a controversial part of the world to mine in.
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The company provides 70% of the phosphate rock used by Ballance and Ravensdown and has recently come under the global spotlight for mining in a part of Morocco’s Western Sahara region seeking self-governance. 

The region is sometimes home for more than 500,000 Saharawi tribesmen and women, known for their nomadic lifestyle, with separatism being claimed by the Polisario Front.

The background to the separatist claim is mired in Morocco’s complex history of colonisation by assorted countries including Spain, Portugal and France, each contributing as much to Morocco’s cosmopolitan nationality as it does to the claims made by the group.

The contested area also happens to contain some of the highest quality phosphate rock used in NZ fertiliser and has been subject to a United Nations request by Morocco to be placed into a “non-self governing territory”, similar to Britain’s Cayman Islands, or NZ’s Tokelau island group.

“But the process of meeting the UN’s request for a politically negotiated compromise on either autonomy or integration has proven controversial,” OCP Group vice-president and general counsel Otmane Bennani-Smires says. 

Ultimately the UN wants to see self-determination by the people in the region in context of the Charter of the United Nations.

One possibility mooted was a referendum in the region to enable the population to decide its fate but that has proved problematic.

“There is no definitive criteria to tell you who is Saharawi and who is not.

“These are nomadic people who are not always in the one place for a long time, making defining a referendum population almost impossible,” Bennani-Smires said.,

The conflict stretched 18,000km back to NZ last year when a $7 million shipment of phosphate was forced to remain in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, after a court there ruled in favour of an injunction taken out by the Western Sahara independence movement.

But OCP Group maintains the court action by South Africa was questionable at best. 

OCP called it political piracy and challenged South Africa’s interference in a Moroccan sovereignty issue. 

The South African ruling came after a similar attempt by Polisario had been blocked by a Panamanian court on a ship heading to Canada. In that case the court made it clear a local court was not the appropriate venue to resolve international disputes.

OCP’s view that the Polisario group is not legitimate was boosted two years ago when the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) asserted large parts of aid supplied to camps run by the group were being diverted to individuals in the group. 

Aid support has been provided since 1975, with European donations of more than €100 million in the 10 years of 1994-04 alone. 

Investigators discovered aid products being sold in Algerian markets and in Mauritanian cities, with false invoicing and overestimates common.

The Polisario movement has also been criticised by the UN for its continued armed presence adding a destabilising force to a country renowned as a steady democracy in an unstable region.

“There is no way a territory the size of Britain will be handed over to an armed group.”

Given this history, OCP remains quietly defiant and determined to continue operating its Phosboucraa mining facility.

“People have been trying to put pressure on NZ fertiliser companies and farmers, accusing them of being unethical. 

“We are doing the exact opposite through the Phosboucraa Foundation. 

“We are determined to not only continue our operations but to continue to serve NZ agriculture and farmers,” Bennani-Smires said.

Ballance chief executive Mark Wynne said the long-running, complex dispute was not for Ballance to resolve. That rested with the United Nations.

“But we have satisfied ourselves about the legality of trading.

“It then comes down to the ethics and if we are comfortable with them. 

“Over the last decade a number of our directors and management team including myself have seen first hand the re-investment OCP makes to the local economy. We are satisfied they are operating with the spirit and intent they claim.”

He had been personally impressed with the high level of remediation done by the company once phosphate was mined.

“Hundreds and thousands of carob and olive trees have been planted, creating sustainable businesses as a result.”

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