[Rockhounds] Trip to Morocco (LONG)
Rik Dillen
rik.dillen at skynet.be
Mon Nov 19 13:27:42 PST 2007
Hi all,
I owe you the story of a trip we made through Morocco, from 18 to 30 October 2007.
The trip was organized by one of our club members. Our target was a mineralogical exploration tour through the southern
part of Morocco, the region southeast of Marrakech/Ouarzazate.
We visited
- The manganese mine of Imini : splendid specimens of pyrolusite crystals and other manganese minerals. Very
primitive manual exploitation. The dust in this mine has about the same effect as graphite : it takes days before you
get rid of the dirt. Some miners even helped us getting out good specimens.
- We did NOT go to Bou Azzer (too long detour from our scheduled route, no good own finds to be expected). But if
we did not go to Bou Azzer, Bou Azzer came to us (in the form of numerous local mineral dealers who offered stuff from
there).
- We visited the Kashba of Ait-Benhaddou, which is one of the most pittoresque places I could ever imagine !
- One day was devoted to mineral digging in Bou Skour, famous locality for lead- and copper minerals. Beautiful
malachite and azurite crystals, galenite etc.
- We passed the silver mines of Imiter, but it is impossible for normal human beings to enter there. absolutely no
trespassing
- The fluorite mine of Lhamda provided us with lots of perfect fluorite cubes up to 5 cm, that were available in
quantities of tons of nicely pre-trimmed specimens. Just a little formatting and making your choice was the only work to
do.
- In the neighborhood of Merzouga we visited, of course, the sand dune desert of Erg Chebbi. We left an hour
before sunrise on the back of a row of dromedaries to climb on a 300 m high sand dune to observe sunrise. The colors and
shades of the sand change every minute in a real kaleidoscope of colors. Unbelievable views ! On our way to our
observation spot we observed numerous meteors in the sky, sometimes several in a minute. On the other hand sitting on
the back of a dromedary demands some concentration to avoid a fall (which would not be that bad in the sand after all).
- Later that day we went rockhounding in a barite mine southeast of Merzouga, were we found splendid barite
crystals. We saw some crystals of several cm in the walls, but these were hard to get out undamaged. The mining
techniques in the mine were again almost medieval.
- From Merzouga we drove up to Midelt where we went to the vanadinite localities around Mi Bladen. Local miners
dig holes here, with a depth from a few to almost 10 m, where they recover vanadinite crystals. A bit further we visited
a quarry/mine, and recovered many beautiful cerussite crystals. Some walls are so unstable that we had to leave the best
stuff in place for safety reasons. It's the kind of rock where you can cause a collapse of several tons of rock by
removing a few cubic cm ! Again a few km further we visited an interesting site on a industrial archeological point of
view : the lead mines of Aouli.
- Then we drove over the pass to Bouiouzane in the middle of the High Atlas Mountains, where very sharp magnetite
crystals (and epidote, titanite etc.) were found abundantly. At a height of about 2700 m above sea level it was pretty
cold out there. We spent the night in the house of a very hospitable Berber family (in fact all Berbers are very
friendly and hospitable) in Imilchil, a village without any trace of modern comfort (electricity, tap water etc.). In
fact they just got an electric power line recently, but it is not yet connected, and the houses are not prepared for it
anyway.
- The day after that we drove to a mineral locality in the neighborhood of Tilmi, which was a hectic journey.
Melting snow was so abundant at the end of the afternoon that we had to go back early. Nevertheless we found there some
nice epidotes and magnetites.
- After a night in Azilal we visited the famous Ouzoud waterfalls. Those are certainly not the biggest, but IMHO
the most elegant of all waterfalls I have ever seen.
- And then it was time to go back to Marrakech to take the plane back home (via Madrid).
Some general thoughts and feelings :
- In general Moroccan/Berber people are very friendly and hospitable. We were always received and treated as
genuine friends.
- Moroccan food is unbelievably good. I'm a very difficult person is as far as food is concerned, and I found
every single dish that we had in those weeks just delicious, even in the smallest villages, miles away from
civilization.
- There are hundreds of mineral dealers, in the neighborhood of Midelt alone. In the whole region there must be
thousands. With such a competition we had expected low prices close to the source, but we experienced quite the
opposite. Mostly prices were ways too high, in many cases even higher than what we pay here at European shows.
Bargaining decreased the price sometimes with a factor of 2 to even 5 to (rarely) 10, but even than real good deals were
rare, except for less well known stuff, such as epidote, magnetite, apatite crystals etc. Even in the mines miners
offered sometimes specimens they had found for prices that were beyond any imagination.
- Falsifications and "mineralogical pieces of art" are ubiquitous, and the creativity of their makers is beyond
any imagination. We have seen geodes in which calcite, quartz, cerussite, anglesite and galenite were present. It was a
pity that did not add also some malachite and azurite as well to get a complete selection of Moroccan minerals on one
specimen :>) We have seen at a certain moment two halves of the same geode that were treated in a different way. Many
dealers along the roads have tons of rocks piled and tossed on each other, so that every single piece is damaged at all
sides.
- Some places, such as e.g. the vanadinite fields of Mi Bladen, are not safe if you are not accompanied by locals.
We have actually met some people with not so positive intentions, backing off as soon as they knew that we had local
people with us. But that situation is more exception then rule.
- It's very hard to find any real rarities. Local miners and mineral diggers do not recognize them, and are even
not interested, as they do not think there is a market for it. Even at dealers you will see rarities only very sparsely,
if any.
- Nature is splendid in the country. A dream for any photographer (I took about 3500 photos, good for nearly 20
Gbytes). I will need weeks to Photoshop them.
- The High Atlas is a very poor region : we have seen children of less than 6 years old traveling with even
smaller children with a flock of sheep. They have nearly no schools, and medical care is virtually non-existent locally.
The other regions we visited are far better off anyway.
- Some roads are in a terrible condition. The road from Midelt to Imilchil e.g. consists in part of a river bed.
On the other hand the situation is improving quickly. Many new roads are under construction nowadays.
- Morocco is developing at a very high speed, and you can see new commercial initiatives everywhere. Due to the
copper prices, one after another copper mine is re-opened.
- We owe our sincere thanks to our 3 Moroccan guide/drivers (Mohammed, Brahim and Mbarak) and to the organizer of
the trip, Paul Vandevelde.
After all, we enjoyed our trip to Morocco very much, we saw a lot, we collected a lot, and we learned a lot. it was
quite enriching.
Greetings,
Rik DILLEN
Doornstraat 15, B-9170 Sint-Gillis-Waas
Belgium
E-mail <mailto:rik.dillen at skynet.be> rik.dillen at skynet.be
Homepage : <http://users.skynet.be/rik.dillen> http://users.skynet.be/rik.dillen
>>> Belgian minerals
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>>> Exchange list
MINERANT 2008 - 26-27 April 2008
Bouwcentrum (Antwerp Expo)
Jan Van Rijswijcklaan 191 Antwerpen
<http://www.minerant.org/mka/minerantnl.html> http://www.minerant.org/mka/minerantnl.html
Mineral collector's page <http://www.minerant.org/> http://www.minerant.org/
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