Tazadit Airport — Zouérate, Mauritania

Tazadit Airport (OUZ) serves Zouérate, a mining town deep in the Sahara desert of northern Mauritania, built almost entirely around the country's massive iron ore extraction industry. The airport primarily supports the operations of SNIM, Mauritania's state mining company, facilitating personnel transport and logistics for one of Africa's largest iron ore mining operations. Zouérate's remote desert location, far from Mauritania's coastal capital Nouakchott, makes air access far more practical than the lengthy overland journey across arid terrain, and OUZ also connects to the famous SNIM iron ore train route that runs from Zouérate to the port city of Nouadhibou.