|
General
- Phosphate rock or
phosphorite is a general description applied to several kinds of rock
which contain significant concentrations of phosphate minerals.
- The two main sources
for phosphate are guano, formed from bird droppings, and rocks
containing concentrations of the calcium phosphate mineral, apatite.
- Phosphate rock can be
any rock or sediment with sufficiently high concentrations of some form
of the mineral fluorapatite.
- Phosphorus-rich rock
is deposited in a body of water in which there is no oxygen; this is
called an anaerobic environment.
Process
- Phosphate rock is
mined, beneficiated, and either solubilized to produce wet-process
phosphoric acid, or smelted to produce elemental phosphoric acid or
smelted to produce elemental phosphorus.
- Phosphate rock is
formed in oceans in the form of calcium phosphate, called phosphorite.
- The phosphatic rock
is characterised by filaments of wavellite, turquoise and quartz.
- Almost all phosphate
rock is mined by strip mining.
Application
- Commercial phosphate
rock is usually sedimentary in origin and is used primarily as a plant
nutrient.
- Several scientists
the world over have been trying to develop1,2 low-cost phosphatic
fertilizers. Indian scientists were successful in testing low-grade
phosphate rocks3–5 for direct application.
- Nitrates and
phosphates are the main agronutrients mined by current sub-Saharan small
scale agricultural practices.
- Biofertilisers
produced with phosphate rock (PR) plus sulphur (S) inoculated with
Acidithiobacillus can promote plant growth and increase available P in
tropical soils.
Technology
- Technically and
economically feasible beneficiation technology is used for processing
dolomite pebbles which is needed to recover phosphate value.
- The Florida phosphate
industry has been practicing the current flotation technique for
concentrating phosphate minerals for half a century.
- Flotation is one of
the most efficient techniques applied for phosphate upgrading. Desliming
of flotation feed is a critical pre-request step for successful
phosphate/gangue separation by flotation.
Market
- The United States is
the world's leading producer and consumer of phosphate rock.
- China, the United
States and Morocco are the world's largest miners of phosphate rock.
- Most of the U.S. and
world phosphate rock resources are widely distributed marine phosphorite
deposits.
- Total capacity of the
phosphate rock industry in the U.S. is 56 million tons, with mines
currently operating at about 90 percent of capacity.
- There are markets
such as those of Malaysia and Brazil, where directly applied phosphate
rock makes good sense from an agronomic or economic point of view.
Entrepreneur who want the
information on "General Information, Production, Commodity, Mining Process,
Technology, Applications, Patent, Project, Consultants, Company Profiles, Reports,
Market" can E-Mail us to
informer@eth.net,
primaryinfo@gmail.com
|
Mining Process,
Technology, Applications, Patent, Project, Consultants, Company Profiles, Reports,
Market
