Despite the barren landscape, Tindouf is a resource-rich province, with important quantities of iron ore located in the Gara Djebilet area close to the border with Mauritania.

[9] In a process beginning in 1969 and finalized during the OAU summit in Rabat in 1972,[10] Morocco recognized the border with Algeria, in exchange for joint exploitation of the iron ore in Tindouf.

From 1974, refugees from the contested Spanish Sahara started arriving to the Tindouf area, following an earlier wave from the 1958 unrest.

This turned into a major exodus from 1975 onwards, when Morocco and Mauritania seized control of what was then called Western Sahara, and Algeria retaliated by allowing the Polisario Front, a nationalist Sahrawi movement, to use the area as its main base.

The Polisario remains in the province, running the large refugee camps located south of Tindouf city.