OCP Group (Office Cherifien des Phosphates) is the world's largest phosphate rock miner and phosphoric acid producer, controlling approximately 70% of the world's economically recoverable phosphate reserves from deposits at Khouribga, Gantour, and Bou Craa in Morocco and Western Sahara. OCP processes over 36 million tonnes of phosphate rock per year at its massive Jorf Lasfar industrial complex near El Jadida. The Bayer-process phosphoric acid production generates enormous volumes of phosphogypsum (calcium sulfate) waste - approximately 5 tonnes per tonne of phosphoric acid produced - in which the rare earth elements originally hosted in the phosphate rock (primarily La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu) are concentrated. OCP has partnered with Prayon (Belgium) and various university research groups to pilot REE recovery from its phosphogypsum stockpiles, which represent one of the world's largest untapped secondary REE resources. The Jorf Lasfar phosphogypsum stack alone contains an estimated 30+ million tonnes of REO distributed across decades of accumulated waste.
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