Morocco Rare Earth: Deposits, Strategy & 2026 Outlook

Morocco rare earth exploration has identified over 990 million tonnes of combined resources across its Lamlaga and Lahjira deposits in the southern provinces, with additional high-grade pegmatite and carbonatite prospects still at early stage. Morocco signed a bilateral critical minerals MOU with the United States on 4 February 2026, formalising Washington’s interest in Rabat as an alternative to Chinese and Congolese supply.

Morocco Rare Earth Deposits: What ONHYM Has Found

The National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM) ran 44 mineral exploration projects in 2024 covering rare earths, cobalt, copper, silver, and niobium across Morocco’s southern provinces, High Atlas, and Anti-Atlas regions. Three distinct deposit types have emerged from that programme.

Carbonatite deposits — including the Lamlaga and Lahjira projects in the southern provinces — are the most advanced. Lamlaga, explored in partnership with the Managem group, holds an estimated 618 million tonnes at 0.64% rare earth oxide, with rare earth index values exceeding 0.95% in the best zones. Lahjira carries roughly 372 million tonnes at 0.62% light rare earths, along with notable niobium and thorium concentrations.

Pegmatite deposits are represented by the Awark prospect, located approximately 180 kilometres south-east of Dakhla. Shallow intersections at Awark have returned rare earth grades up to 4.6% — well above typical carbonatite benchmarks — though the resource base remains small and early-stage.

Sedimentary deposits are the least characterised. The Targhat project, still in exploration, has returned sample grades up to 6.4% rare earths in some intervals — figures that, if confirmed at scale, would be among the highest in Africa. The Tamazirt deposit in the High Atlas near Midelt carries heavy rare earths, niobium, and tantalum, though resources there are more modest.

None of Morocco’s rare earth deposits have progressed beyond the resource estimation and risk-reduction phase. ONHYM’s own assessment notes that turning visible resources into mine-ready assets requires heavy drilling, metallurgical testwork, and environmental permitting — steps that typically take five to ten years in comparable jurisdictions.

The Phosphogypsum Angle: OCP, Rainbow, and a Different Route to Morocco Rare Earth

Morocco’s more commercially advanced rare earth opportunity is not in hard rock at all. OCP Group — the state-owned phosphate producer that holds roughly 70% of the world’s phosphate reserves — generates large volumes of phosphogypsum as a by-product of phosphoric acid production at its Jorf Lasfar facility.

In August 2022, OCP, the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), and London-listed Rainbow Rare Earths (LSE: RBW) signed a master agreement to develop the optimal technique for extracting rare earths from sedimentary-sourced phosphogypsum. Initial testing by SGS Laboratories in Johannesburg confirmed that the OCP phosphogypsum basket contains all four magnet rare earths — neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium — with NdPr representing approximately 14.3% of the basket.

The technical challenge is grade. Sedimentary phosphogypsum is typically lower in rare earth concentration than hard-rock carbonatites, meaning more processing steps are required before economic extraction is viable. Rainbow’s stated priority remains its Phalaborwa project in South Africa, where a Definitive Feasibility Study is scheduled for completion in 2026. The OCP Morocco programme operates on a longer development timeline, with Rainbow describing it as a test programme requiring further economic validation at each processing stage.

The strategic logic is clear regardless of timeline: Morocco produces enough phosphoric acid to generate phosphogypsum at scale, and sedimentary feedstocks of this type account for an estimated 90% of global phosphoric acid production. If Rainbow and OCP can demonstrate economic REE recovery from sedimentary sources, the model becomes replicable worldwide.

Morocco Rare Earth Strategy: US MOU and the China Diversification Play

Morocco signed a bilateral critical minerals MOU with the United States on 4 February 2026 at the US Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington, one of eleven such frameworks signed that day. The agreement covers cooperation and investment in the exploration and extraction of critical minerals, and positions Morocco alongside Guinea as one of only two African signatories at that event.

The timing reflects a structural shift in Western supply chain policy accelerated by China’s rare earth export controls introduced in April 2025. Morocco’s pitch to Western partners combines three assets that few African nations can offer simultaneously: established mining infrastructure, deep phosphate processing expertise through OCP, and geographic proximity to European industrial consumers.

Rabat’s stated strategy explicitly targets value-added processing rather than raw material export. Morocco is home to Africa’s first planned gigafactory, backed in part by Chinese battery manufacturers drawn by the country’s geostrategic position between European and African markets. The CESE (Morocco’s Economic, Social, and Environmental Council) has identified seven of the 24 technology-critical minerals required for EVs, wind turbines, aerospace, and semiconductors as present within Morocco’s territory.

A reform of Morocco’s mining code is under development to support this ambition, with three structural changes planned: a digital mining cadastre, a National Commission for Strategic and Critical Minerals, and an official national list of strategic mineral designations.

Bou Azzer: Morocco’s Established Critical Mineral Production Base

While rare earth deposits remain pre-production, Morocco already operates one of the world’s most significant cobalt mines at Bou Azzer in the Anti-Atlas, run by Managem Group (listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange). Bou Azzer produced 798 tonnes of cobalt in 2023, making Morocco the second-largest cobalt producer in Africa after the Democratic Republic of Congo. Cobalt is a direct feedstock for lithium-ion battery cathodes and permanent magnet motors.

Managem’s involvement extends to rare earth exploration: the group is ONHYM’s partner on the Lamlaga and Twihinate carbonatite prospects. That dual exposure — cobalt production now, rare earth development optionality — makes Managem a structurally important company in Morocco’s critical minerals story, though it is not a rare earth producer in the conventional sense.

Morocco Rare Earth: What Investors and Industry Should Watch

Morocco sits at an earlier stage in the rare earth development curve than most of the projects tracked in Africa’s top rare earth projects. Ngualla (Tanzania), Songwe Hill (Malawi), Phalaborwa (South Africa), and Makuutu (Uganda) all have more advanced resource estimates and, in some cases, completed feasibility work. Morocco’s geological potential is real, but the timeline to production for any of its carbonatite or pegmatite deposits is measured in years, not months.

The nearer-term signal to watch is the OCP-Rainbow phosphogypsum programme. If testwork advances to pilot scale and Rainbow’s economic modelling confirms viable margins from sedimentary feedstock, Morocco could become the proof-of-concept for a globally scalable low-capex REE processing model — one that leverages existing phosphate infrastructure rather than requiring greenfield mine construction.

The US MOU and the incoming mining code reforms provide the policy framework. Whether that translates into commercial rare earth production depends on metallurgical outcomes and capital availability — neither of which Rabat controls directly.

For wider context on Africa’s emerging position in the rare earth supply chain, see the Africa rare earth hub and the top 10 Africa rare earth countries guide.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.