Phosphate rock production, world

World Phosphate Rock Production and Quality - Commercial production of phosphate rock for the production of fertilizers began in the mid-19th century. In 1847, about 500 tonnes of phosphate rock was mined in Suffolk, England [42], World production increased to 5,000 tonnes in 1850, 10,000 tonnes in 1853, over 100,000 tonnes in 1865, over 1 million tonnes in 1885, over 10 million tonnes in 1928, and over 100 million tonnes in 1974. In the mid-1970s, one estimate indicated that world phosphate rock production would be about 300 million tonnes by the year 2000 [43]. 

Such estimates proved to be overly optimistic. Figure 5,19 shows world growth in phosphate rock production... 

World phosphate rock production figures for 1988 are given in Table 5.10. The figures for 1988 were chosen for iOustrative purposes because the world phosphate market was relatively stable at this time. Based on 1988 data, four countries - the United States, FSU, Morocco (including Western Sahara), and China - collectively produced about 75% of the world s phosphate rock. The top 12 countries produced about 95% of the world s total phosphate rock. 

Trade conflicts in the world phosphate market in 1989 did not prove to deter phosphate rock production, and world production increased slightly to approximately 163 million tonnes, according to the United States Bureau of Mines (USBM) [45]. In 1990 world production fell to about 154 million tonnes. U.S. production decreased about 4 million tonnes. With the advent of significant social changes in the FSU and associated economic disruption, FSU production declined from about 35 million tonnes of phosphate rock in 1990 to about 29 million tonnes in 1991. Overall world production... 

Estimates of 1993 world phosphate rock production ranged from 117 million to 131 million tonnes [46, 47, 48]. Although production in the FSU was thought to have stabilized near 19 million tonnes (about half of the pre-1990 levels), production in the United States was down about 9 million tonnes and Morocco decreased production about 1 million tonnes. Final USBM figures for 1993 indicate a total world mine production of 120 million tonnes [47]. 

Estimates of 1994 world production indicate an approximate increase of 10 million tonnes over 1993 production to 130 million tonnes. For comparison with 1988 data (Table 5.10), one set of world phosphate rock production estimates for 1994 is given in Table 5.11. In this compilation, FSU data have been separated into Russia, Kazakhstan, and other countries, and therefore several producers have changed positions in ranking. While overall world production decreased approximately 32 million tonnes from 1988 to 1994 (about 20%), the top 4 producing countries still produce about... 

World phosphate rock production capacity has been estimated as 195.5 million tpy [49]. At 150 million tpy, world capacity utilization is about 77%. At 130 million tpy, world capacity utilization is about 66%. Perhaps most significant in this scenario are the production capacities of the two primary players in the export market the United States (55 million tpy) and Morocco and Western Sahara (32 million tpy). Competition, together with the overcapacity of the major players and of the world as a whole, is one of the prime reasons that world phosphate rock prices have not increased over the past 15-20 years. 

Table 5.12 shows a breakdown of world phosphate rock production by grade as percentages of total production from 1971 to 1993. This is a partial breakdown of world production in that this table and the following tables (Tables 5.13 and 5.14) do not include data from the FSU or other countries with centrally planned economies. During this time period, a vast amount of growth occurred in the world pho hate rock... 

Fhosphate rock prices will increase when demand approaches the limits of supply. When phosphate rock prices increase, some resources become rieserves, marginal mining projects become xtoble, and production is stimulated. In the future, fuel and kiel-related transportation costs may become even more important components in the world phosphate rock production scenario. Political disruptions, always an unknown factor, can profoundly influence the supply and demand for fertilizer raw materials on a worldwide basis. 

The 1989 peak of 166 x 10 tons in world phosphate rock production was followed by a fall to 120 X 10 tons in 1993, although some individual countries, notably China, have since increased their output considerably. This has led to world recovery, and, according to 2008 estimates (Table 2.8), the previous (1993) total has again been reached [5,5a]. The latest available estimates, for 2009 production, indicate further expansion by China against a background of a slight fall by many other countries. However a steady growth in overall world production is predicted in the present century. 

Over 90% of the world s phosphate rock production is converted into orthophosphoric acid by the wet process (Chapter 5.2). Almost aU of this is used to make fertilisers and less than 5% is used to make other phosphorus compounds. Some of the latter are still made via the element itself, which is obtained directly from apatite by the electric furnace method (Chapter 4.1). Phosphate rock is sometimes used directly, in finely ground form as a fertiliser, or as an animal feed supplement, if the fluorine has been removed by prior heat treatment (Chapter 12.3). 

TABLE 10.2 World Production of Phosphate Rock Production (Millions of Short Tons)... 

At the present rate of world phosphate rock consumption (150 x 10 t/yr), the total world reserve (Table 14) is sufficient for about 200 years, and the resource would be sufficient for nearly 900 years. At expected increased rates of consumption, the reserves and resources are adequate for at least 150 years and 700 years, respectively. At projected rates of consumption, the high grade reserves in Florida probably will be exhausted by the year 2000. Rock production from the Florida reserve presentiy constitutes about 80% of all United States production and about one-third of world production (106). This rate of depletion is causing increased interest in western United States reserves which represent nearly 80% of present U.S. total reserves. 

Resources of Sulfur. In most of the technologies employed to convert phosphate rock to phosphate fertilizer, sulfur, in the form of sulfuric acid, is vital. Treatment of rock with sulfuric acid is the procedure for producing ordinary superphosphate fertilizer, and treatment of rock using a higher proportion of sulfuric acid is the first step in the production of phosphoric acid, a production intermediate for most other phosphate fertilizers. Over 1.8 tons of sulfur is consumed by the world fertilizer industry for each ton of fertilizer phosphoms produced, ie, 0.8 t of sulfur for each ton of total 13.7 X 10 t of sulfur consumed in the United States for all purposes in 1991, 60% was for the production of phosphate fertilizers (109). Worldwide the percentage was probably even higher. 

The ores of most importance are fluorspar, CaF2 fluorapatite, Ca (P0 2Fj cryoHte [15096-52-3], Na AlF. Fluorspar is the primary commercial source of fluoiine. Twenty-six percent of the world s high quaHty deposits of fluorspar are ia North America. Most of that is ia Mexico. United States production ia 1987—1991 was 314,500 metric tons, most of which occurred ia the Illinois-Kentucky area. Imported fluorspar ia 1990—1991 represented about 82% of U.S. consumption 31% of U.S. fluorspar imports were from Mexico and 29% from China compared to 66% from Mexico ia the 1973—1978 period. The majority of the fluorine ia the earth s cmst is ia phosphate rock ia the form of fluorapatite which has an average fluorine concentration of 3.5%. Recovery of these fluorine values as by-product fluorosiHcic acid from phosphate production has grown steadily, partially because of environmental requirements (see Phosphoric acid and THE phosphates). 

This paper results from work completed in 1979 (and updated in 1980) to evaluate the emerging supply/demand, cost/price outlook for the fertilizer commodities phosphate rock, upgraded phosphates, sulfur, and sulfuric acid. Our purpose here is to publish, in part, our analysis of recent trends and events which impact on sulfur supply and demand, and to use these together with available production cost data to project price behavior for sulfur over the near term. Such projections are helpful to managers of large industrial firms as one of several tools available to them in making investment, contract, marketing, or other major decisions. This paper is necessarily limited in scope, and will attempt to summarize the world outlook with emphasis on the North American scene. 

The World s Production of Phosphate Rock.—The amounts of phosphate rock mined annually increased only slowly from the beginnings of the industry in 1847 to 250,000 tons in 1869, then to about one million tons in 1887 and about seven million tons in 1918. 

Sulfuric acid plants are located throughout the industrialized world, Fig. 2.2. Most are located near their product acid s point of use, i.e. near phosphate fertilizer plants, nickel ore leach plants and petroleum refineries. This is because elemental sulfur is cheaper to transport than sulfuric acid. Examples of long distance sulfur shipment are from natural gas purification plants in Alberta, Canada to acid plants near phosphate rock based fertilizer plants in Florida and Australia. A new sulfur-burning sulfuric acid plant (4400 tonnes of acid per day) is costing 75 million U.S. dollars (Sulfuric 2005). 

Phosphate rock deposits contain uranium (U), radium (Ra), thorium (Th), and other radionuclides as contaminants. Uranium in phosphate rock deposits throughout the world range from 3 to 400 mg kg (Guimond, 1978). It has been estimated that 1000 kg of Florida phosphate rock contains about 100 pCi each of" U and Ra and 4 pCi of °Th (Menzel, 1968). Some of these elements are retained in the HjPO and the remainder are transferred to the by-products during fertilizer manufacture. For instance it is estimated that 60% of the radioactivity in mined Florida phosphate rock remains with slime and sand tailings during beneficiation (Guimond and Windham, 1975). 

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