Phosphate Ore Deposits

One can only speculate about the conditions in the expansive inland seas that became bountiful in life and rich in phosphates with no input from humanity because there was no humanity. And how did marine bones become sources of ore 

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Estimated world production capacity for elemental phosphoms is shown in Table 5 (6). Three elemental phosphoms production sites remain operational in North America (14), although Rhc ne Poulenc has announced its intention to cease production in late 1995. The remaining plants have survived owing to the availabiUty of economical electric power in the Northwest and proximity to phosphate ore deposits, resulting in lower cost phosphoms. The capacity of these producers in 1995 was estimated to be 264,000 metric tons. U.S. production capacity peaked at approximately 622,000 metric tons in 1970. 

Fig. 1. Location map of the Ras-Draa phosphate ore deposit in the Gafsa-Metlaoui basin, Tunisia (source www.earth.google, fr).

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