Morocco part 8: the scenic route back to Marrakesh

We are near the end of the trip and we leave Skoura to return to Marrakech. On the way we stop in the lovely resort city of Ouarzazate (pronounced war-za-zat).

We visit a spice and cosmetic store.

Interesting, in this basket of skin care and cosmetics there is a grey-black piece of galena (lead sulfide). The store owner said it was antimony. As mentioned before the Berber women used ground antimony sulfide as "kohl", eyeliner. Now they use the cheaper and more common and more toxic mineral galena.  Indeed that mineral in the basket is galena.

Metalwork and Berber jewelry.

Continuing through the High Atlas towards Marrakech, this is Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou.  It is a very famous Kasbah but we did not go inside as it looked very crowded.

We are taking the highway P1506 and it may be the nicest scenery we have had so far!

This is the Telouet Kasbah, built in the 19th century and owned until 1942 by the Glaoui Pasha (a.k.a. "Lord of the Atlas") and his family. The Pashas were powerful Berbers who got their titles from the Sultan, "Pasha" is similar to "Duke" or "Count". This kasbah was a resting place for Berber caravans traveling between Marrakech and the southern Sahara.

Storks nest on the Kasbah towers.

Lunch at a roadside cafe!

An argan oil shop. All argan products are made by a women's collective. The trees are rare, only grown in a limited region in Morocco. Women grind the nuts and extract the oil using traditional and modern techniques.  The oil is used to make cosmetics and oil from roasted nuts is used for cooking. The oil has a nice flavor, sort of like sesame oil.

Back to Villas Chems Hamra in time for dinner, and Happy Birthday Eloïse!

Afterwards the groups break up, with some people returning home and other continuing their vacation in Fez. A wonderful trip with wonderful people!

Group 1: Mary, Bert, Kathy, Bruce, Edna, Dick, Mary, Georges, Dolores, Roy, Larry, Theresa, Bob, Mary, Tony behind the camera!

Group 2:  Hassan (driver) Azziz (guide), Yusef (driver) Jean-Pierre (guide) Joanna, Pat, Jean, Dave, Bob, Conan, Jean, Esther, Linda, Alyssa, Bruce, Kathy, Mustapha (driver), Eloïse behind the camera!

Morocco part 7: Skoura and Bou Skour

We head southwest towards the city of Skoura.  We take a scenic route through the Dades Valley.  Again, very beautiful places, nice rocks.

In Skoura we stay at the hotel owned by our guide Azziz.

After dinner, the ladies got some henna tattoos.

and henna hair!

The next morning we visit our last mine, one hour away from Skoura is Bou Skour, a copper mine.  This deposit was found in 1942 by French prospectors.  It has opened and closed several times over the years.  Right now the mine is open but still not at full production.

They have several shafts open for geophysical mapping and core sampling. In the next few years they plan to build treatment plants. We were able to collect copper rich minerals such as malachite and azurite.

After a picnic lunch cooked by Azziz, we returned to Skoura to shop for Berber rugs and jewelry. The rugs are amazing, all handmade, no two alike. They use wool from camel, sheep, goat and a silk fiber from cacti.  Many are dyed yellow with saffron.

At dinner that night we had Berber music and festivities

Morocco part 6: Todra Gorges and Imiter Silver Mine

Heading into the Todra Gorges, the scenic route to the Imiter mine!

Our hotel in the gorge.

Just east of the city of Tinehir, Imiter silver mine is the seventh largest silver mine (in terms of production). It is such a rich deposit that they do not touch the rocks with highest silver content  because it is not cost effective to mine them! They could flood the market with silver but that would drive global prices down.

We had a nice lecture from the mine geologists. The geology is similar to what we saw at Bou Azzer, an east-west trending normal fault creates a contact between the older rocks of Precambrian II with Precambrian III. There are many associated faults, it is a suture zone that in the distant past had hydrothermal activity (lots of hot water flowing through the cracks in the rock). The contact is not mineralized but the faults in Precambrian II do contain the rich ore deposits.

There were two tour options here, underground or above ground. There was some concern that underground would be a bit more unsafe and difficult so only the most adventurous should take this option:

Off they go!  For those who stay above ground, we were treated to a great tour of the surface operations.

We saw one of the larger open pits, in the top photo, the lighter green-grey rocks to the right are Precambrian III, and darker rocks to the left are Precambrian II. The geologist was great, even though our guide Jean-Pierre was there to translate, he was determined to make us understand him! He drew detailed pictures and spoke very clear french and it worked, I think we did understand him fairly well.

They do not use trucks to remove the ore from the pits, they use large elevators and move the ore to the surface and deliver it to the foundries. At this mine (unlike Bou Azzer) they smelt the ore on site and make 99.5% pure silver ingots which are shipped by armored trucks to the port at Tangiers.

This is one of the elevators bringing ore to the surface.  There are cages for people to ride up and down as well!

The adventurers saw the operations from underground:

Seems a little low-tech...

Now we're talking!

In Precambriam II, dolomite limestone veins containing silver, galena, acanthite (silver sulfide) and imiterite (type mineral from this locality, a silver and mercury sulfide).

Back on the surface, security check.

The group came back together for a tour of the foundry. This is the plant where the pure silver metal is extracted from the minerals. This is a multi-stage chemical process involving cyanide and other highly toxic materials. While fascinating, the fumes were very unpleasant and the noise levels were high. A difficult job to have to do every day. Again, it is very valuable to see first hand the process of digging and extracting the materials we need to use in our daily lives.

The finished product, pure silver.  On this cart is approximately one million dollars worth of silver!

On the way out we passed through a village with people on strike.  Apparently the locals are unhappy because they cannot work at the mine.  The mine is one of the only places to work in the area but they bring their employees in from far away.  We don't know the full story but it is sad to see such high unemployment all throughout the country.

Morocco part 5: Erfoud and Midelt (the prettiest rocks)

Now we are heading north to the city of Midelt in the Atlas. Midelt (and the nearby mines in Mibladen) is known for fine mineral specimens.

We stop along the way in Erfoud. At Erfoud is a Devonian black fossiliferous limestone that is seen all over the world in countertops and sculptures. It contains spectacular belemnite and ammonite fossils. We visit the factory where the rock is cut, polished and made into furniture and tschotskes!

The city of Midelt is not much to look at but it is full of mineral shops with some fakes and some fine specimens:

Spectacular scarlet red vanadinite from Mibladen. We bought many pieces of this material.  Also nice green rosasite on calcite and malachite/azurite from near the Algerian border at Bou Beker.

These are some lovely blue barites, a relatively new find from Sidi Lahcen.

The mines of Koudiat, in Mibladen, a small village only a few minutes from Midelt.
These are independant miners, we visited with one man who had dug a 50 meter long shaft himself with no heavy equipment. It took him one year to dig and he took us down for a little tour.

Safety standards were not so high...the ladder ended about 6 feet above the floor!

But look what we saw! Vanadinite on barite, beautiful!

Everyone enjoyed this experience!

Next, a quick stop in Mesozoic sedimentary rocks at "Les Dalles" (meaning "slab of stones") to see dinosaur footprints.

Still in Mibladen, this is Les Eaux ("The Waters") once a commercial lead mine, now worked only by collectors for galena (PbS), cerussite and barite.

A galena-rich vein. We met a woman inside the caves who was collecting galena. She sells it in Marrakesh for "kohl" - black eyeliner! They used to make kohl from stibnite (antimony sulfide) but it is now too scarce, so they use galena. Unfortunately it is not good for your health to put lead sulfide on your eyes, hopefully better education will help stop this practice someday.

We had lunch at the home of our guide's sister. A tagine of lamb with apricots, wow!