The world’s greatest producer and second-largest exporter of phosphates combines environmental concern with economic development

MOSTAFA TERRAB General Manager, Office Chérifien des Phosphates

he nation’s point man on phosphates, the country’s chief export, has credentials more befitting a civil engineering whiz than an expert in sedimentary rocks. But Mostafa Terrab, a former professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has led infrastructure projects from Saudi Arabia to San Francisco, holds precisely the pedigree Morocco needs to thrust its mining industry to global prominence.

Mr. Terrab is General Manager of the Office Chérifien des Phosphates, which oversees phosphate mining operations and promotes foreign investment in the sector. The state-run body, with a history stretching back to 1920, wants to modernize the industry while maintaining an emphasis on environmental standards.

A year into the job, Mr. Terrab is building on Morocco’s extensive experience in mining while using favorable free trade laws to generate even more foreign exploration at home.

“Morocco has been managing this resource very well,” he says, pointing to expansion plans that will “develop these resources within the framework of the best economic interest of the country.”

With an estimated 75 percent of the world's phosphate, Morocco is the largest global producer and second-largest exporter of the salty rock. Its uses range from agricultural to industrial, such as ingredients in fertilizers, livestock feed, food preservatives and laundry detergents, among other applications.

Exporting phosphate became easier when the government signed a free trade agreement with the United States in 2004. The bilateral agreement immediately abolished duties on 95 percent of goods and will eliminate tariffs on remaining goods within a decade. This is particularly positive for Morocco, according to Mr. Terrab, as 95 percent of mining business involves customers abroad

Belgian firm Prayon was one of the first mining production partners in the 1980s and the Moroccan mining group now owns a 50 percent stake in the company. Brazilian, German and Indian firms have followed the Belgians’ lead, embarking on a number of mining projects here.

North American partners include Canadian firms PCS and Agrium, while U.S.-based Mosaic, Agrifos and Innophos are also involved in mining development. These joint ventures are critical to expansion strategies as Morocco offers its partners “reliability and security of supply of phosphate resources,” Mr. Terrab says.

Environmentalists have charged for decades that phosphate production has detrimental effects on nearby communities, such as contaminated water, noxious gases or damage to vegetation.

Mr. Terrab affirms that his country is working with groups such as the International Fertilizer Association to head off any concerns. He remarks, “It is a question of using a good quality and correct quantity of fertilizer at the right moment, and then the environmental degradation truly becomes minimal.”