Here at CCL our job is to solve your problems, to work alongside you and understand your pain points. We design and build too many different, unique and special situations where conveyor systems are concerned. However, we have never built a conveyor system that is 98km long!
This week I came across an article on the words longest conveyor belt.
Being interested in all things conveyor, I was taken aback and seriously impressed with the engineering challenges that must have been faced to bring this conveyor to life.
Morocco controls something like 70% of all the worlds phosphate reserves.
Every year 3 million tons of the stuff is exported for use in things like fertiliser from a plant in El Halassa and that means it needs to get to the plant in the first place.
How does it get there? You guessed it, via conveyor.
Because of the desert wind blowing across the belt, when viewed from above the belt route is market by a white line, which is the phosphate that has been blown of the belt to make its own mark, alongside it. Yes, you can see it from space.
It was built in the early 1970’s by the Bou Craa Phosphate Company.
The story of the belt is intertwined with a border dispute but that’s a different story entirely.
If you are ever in Morocco and fancy looking at the belt it is possible to do so, so next time I’m in Morocco, I may give it a look, it is truly one of the greatest engineering feats of the region.
This all goes to show that each customers needs are different, with their own challenges, and ones here at CCL that we are always happy to rise to!
As always feel free to get in touch with questions around your own businesses conveyor challenges.