Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

With its rich and diverse mineral resources and its geological formations belonging to the whole geological series, Morocco has a long mining tradition, spanning several centuries. A succession of orogenic belts (from the Precambrian to the Tertiary) is endowed with various types of deposits. Morocco, like many other countries with large mining industries, is increasingly concerned about the serious environmental problems that mine wastes can cause, particularly around abandoned mines. In this context, the IDRC Research Chair in “Management and Stabilization of Mining and Industrial Wastes” aims to create a centre for advanced technology in mining and industrial wastes in Morocco. The project will train highly qualified staff and transfer knowledge to mine operators. Several universities, research laboratories, and mining companies (OCP and Managem groups) participated in this research project.
Since 2009, the project has developed, both in the laboratory and in the field, cost-effective restoration methods adapted to semi-arid climatic conditions to manage and stabilize harmful mine wastes. Environmental characterization and reclamation research activities have been conducted at nine mine sites: Tiwine (Mn), Tiouit (Ag, Au, Cu) and Zgounder (Ag) in the Anti-Atlas; the Erdouz mine (Pb, Zn) in the High Atlas; the well-known Kettara mine (FeS) in the Jebilet Massif; the Zaïda and Mibladen mines (Pb) in the Upper Moulouya (between the Middle and High Atlas); and the Jerada (anthracite) and Touissit (Zn, Pb) mines in eastern Morocco. Furthermore, the project team has investigated new technologies for the recycling and valorization of non-polluting mine wastes.
In terms of training, Cadi Ayyad university and UQAT collaborated to create high-quality training opportunities in the field of mining environment research. We trained 2 postdocs, 12 PhD students (5 already defended their dissertation; the remaining 7 will shortly defend their dissertations), and 21 master’s students in engineering (4 of them come from Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali, and Mauritania, in Western Africa).
A significant outcome of work to date is the restoration of the abandoned Kettara mine site, which had been leaching heavy metals into the soil and water table for decades. IDRC funding and collaboration with UQAT have made this effort possible. Indeed, the promising results of the Kettara field investigation validated the reclamation scenario of this site through the reuse of phosphate mine wastes as a store-and-release (SR) cover. Studies of other mines are sufficiently advanced to propose and implement cost-effective ways to remediate or mitigate their tailings or to valorize their tailings as raw materials for bricks and ceramics, for example.