"Pollution, poverty, protests: On the toxic trail of Morocco’s phosphate giant" 28 July 2025

Morocco’s phosphate minerals are vital for producing fertiliser and powering electric cars. Demand is set to surge as part of the energy transition, but mining comes at a heavy cost to people and the planet. Follow the Money travelled to Morocco, where the world’s largest exporter – the state-owned OCP – faces growing criticism from human rights campaigners and local communities over the dangers to their health and the environment...
I’d just finished an interview with a former worker at a fertiliser factory in western Morocco when my local colleague – fellow journalist Salah Eddine Kharouai – delivered some troubling news...Salah said the Moroccan security service had got wind of our reporting into the country’s state-owned phosphate and fertiliser giant, and had turned up unannounced at his parents’ house...OCP is a large state-owned company that processes phosphate and produces fertilisers in chemical factories in Safi and Jorf Lasfar, two coastal towns located south of Casablanca...

Demand for phosphoric acid is expected to rise significantly, making Morocco a potential major battery hub...Morocco has 67 per cent of global phosphate reserves and OCP... is the world's largest exporter...
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“Fluoride contamination of the drinking water turns our teeth brown”... phosphate mining causes air and groundwater pollution. There are also concerns about harm to marine ecosystems due to the disposal of radioactive waste...

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In interviews, environmental and human rights NGOs, labour unions, and local residents told me they were were deeply unhappy with OCP...
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It’s unknown whether OCP pre-purifies the waste material. The company’s sustainability report makes no mention of the risks of phosphogypsum, only stating that “processing is challenging”...

Mohammed Elyassir – an activist for the Safi branch of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) – has sent a letter to the company and local authorities seeking clarification on issues including the dumping of phosphogypsum...“But the letters remain unanswered,” he told me...“OCP funds all sorts of social projects, but that’s propaganda”...

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In response to my questions, OCP stated that all employees – including workers hired by subcontractors – must receive free personal protective equipment...They temporarily lost their sight and developed paralysis. One of them fell into a coma...

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In 2019, OCP “categorically refuted” what it called unfounded allegations linking the company to pollution that the research said caused serious harm to health and the environment near its sites...

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...When I returned to the Netherlands and tried in vain to find out if my laptop had been hacked, I got a message from Salah...His family had been evicted from their home...