History of Nouadhibou

The major economic activity is fishing; however, the largest industry is processing iron ore that is transported by train from the interior mining towns of Zouérat and Fdérik.

On 30 June 1973, at the time of the second-longest solar eclipse in 20th century, an Aerobee rocket was launched at Nouadhibou for solar research.

From February 2006 onwards Nouadhibou has become the departure point for African migrants trying to reach the Canary Islands. This extremely dangerous route to reach the European Union has become popular as a result of increased emigration controls along the Moroccan coast and around the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in the second half of 2005.

The city is reputedly also a centre of trading of meteorites found in the Sahara