Why There’s a 61-Mile Conveyor Belt in the Sahara Desert

The world's longest conveyor belt, stretching 61 miles across the Sahara Desert, transports phosphate from a mine to a port, chosen over other methods for its efficiency and historical PR value during Spanish colonial rule.

• The 61-mile Sahara conveyor belt moves 8,000-9,000 tons of essential phosphate daily.

• Conventional transport methods were impractical for the scale and desert conditions.

• The conveyor belt was built in 1973 by Imperial Spain as a political distraction and PR stunt.

The 61-mile conveyor belt in what is known as Western Sahara is one of the few artificial structures visible from space. It transports 8,000-9,000 tons of phosphate daily from the Bukhara mine to the port in El Marsa, a critical component for fertilizer production. This system was implemented over other logistical solutions due to the unique challenges of the Sahara and the political motivations of Imperial Spain.

Purpose of the Conveyor Belt

• 00:00:49 The 61-mile conveyor belt system in the Sahara Desert exists to transport phosphate, a crucial mineral for fertilizer production, from the Bukhara Phosphate Mine to the port in El Marsa. The mine holds nearly 70% of the world's phosphate reserves, producing 8,000 to 9,000 tons daily, making an efficient transport solution essential for global food and civilization infrastructure.

Alternative Transport Challenges

• 00:01:28 Traditional methods like slurry pipelines are unsuitable due to the Sahara's extreme water scarcity, requiring millions of gallons of water. Truck transport for 8,000-9,000 tons daily would necessitate hundreds of trips, destroying the single paved road and being impractical for such a massive operation in a remote region. While mine railways are effective elsewhere for long distances, the 61-mile route was considered too short to be economically viable for a dedicated railway serving only one mine and one port.

Colonial PR Stunt

• 00:05:28 The decision to build the world's longest conveyor belt in 1973, when the area was known as Spanish Sahara, was largely a public relations move by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Faced with international pressure to decolonize, Franco aimed to distract Western media and promote the idea that colonialism was beneficial by undertaking a 'spectacular industrial undertaking' that would capture global attention, as noted by the New York Times.

Construction and Legacy

• 00:06:17 The conveyor belt's construction involved laying 113,000 steel rollers and 11 loops of steel-reinforced belting, mounted high above the desert to combat shifting sands. Despite its impressive engineering, Spain surrendered the region to Morocco approximately three years after its completion. The system has remained largely unchanged since the 1970s and is still visible from space, serving as a functional, if ironically conceived, legacy of its colonial origins.