• Olah Palace Trading corrected a reporting error, lowering grades from 300 g/t to 30 g/t.

• The company continues exploration in Guelmim, citing multi-million ounce potential.

• Morocco still lags major African gold producers, with no active industrial gold mines.

A recent reporting mistake has revived debate over Morocco’s gold mining potential. Olah Palace Trading initially announced exploration results of 300 grams of gold per ton of ore, sparking wide media attention nationally and abroad. The company later issued a correction, clarifying the grade was in fact 30 grams per ton. Despite the error, it said exploration work will continue, positioning itself among the firms prospecting for gold deposits in the kingdom.

Morocco already has a base of known deposits, from Saghro to the Anti-Atlas. The Tiouit mine, now closed, produced more than 1 million tons of ore at 7 g/t between 1982 and 1996, according to the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM). The agency has also helped identify deposits such as Iourirn, Azougar n’Tilili in Bas-Drâa, and Tafrent in Sirwa. Some of these permits were later taken over by private operators, including Managem, which is developing new projects in the High and Anti-Atlas.

Drillhole TCK-001 COMPLETE!@StellarAfricaGX intersects 3 key diorite horizons at #TichkaEst Zone B:

- 21.3m (82–104m)
- 15.6m (120–136m)
- 12.4m (164–176m)

Samples en route for assay.

First of 10-hole program in Morocco’s High Atlas.$SPX.V #Gold #TSXV #MiningExploration pic.twitter.com/FXRjPJ3leY

— Stellar AfricaGold (@StellarAfricaGX) August 27, 2025

Olah Palace is currently focusing its work in the Guelmim province, where it has reported quartz veins grading between 6 and 30 g/t of gold, with potential estimated in the millions of ounces. Canadian company Aya Gold & Silver, already producing silver at Zgounder, is advancing polymetallic projects in the Anti-Atlas, including its flagship Boumadine project with around 2 million ounces of indicated and inferred mineral resources. Aya also transferred its Amizmiz project (340,000 inferred ounces) in April 2025 to a new firm called Mx2 Mining. Another player, Stellar AfricaGold, signed a deal with ONHYM in 2020 to develop the Tichka Est project in the High Atlas.

Still, Morocco remains far from joining the ranks of Africa’s major gold producers such as Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mali. In 2024, Managem reported 49 kg of gold production in Morocco, down from 104 kg in 2023, mostly as a byproduct of cobalt operations through its subsidiary CTT. The country currently has no operating industrial gold mine, and most projects remain at an early stage.

For now, Morocco relies more on other metals. It is Africa’s top silver producer, led by Aya’s Zgounder mine, and the world’s leading phosphate producer. Its mining sector, which accounts for 8–10% of GDP, also includes cobalt, copper, and manganese. Authorities aim to diversify through the Morocco Mining Plan, which targets new momentum in non-phosphate mining by 2030.