The iron ore operation at Guelb el Rhein is the reason Zouerate exists. The mines extract millions of tonnes of iron ore annually from deposits in the hills immediately north of the town, and the scale of the operation is visible from the town itself: the ore-stained hillsides, the crusher facilities, the constant movement of massive trucks.
Visits to the actual mining area are not generally permitted to independent travelers — SNIM, the state mining company, controls access. But the spectacle of the loaded trains being assembled in the rail yards at the edge of town, and the ore-processing facilities visible from the approach road, give a sufficient sense of the operation. This is an industrial landscape in the Saharan interior, and it is genuinely unlike anywhere else.