The Senior Specialist Kadriann Tamm of the Geological Survey of Estonia has carried out the study “Valorisation Technologies for Estonian Phosphate Rock – Report on the Current Situation”. Her report gives an overview of the most common technologies for processing phosphate rocks, and assesses the possibilities for taking them into use upon Estonian phosporite.
The global amount of population is increasing, leading to increasing demand for food production. As a consequence, there is rising global demand for phosphate ore for producing phosphate fertilizers. According to forecasts the world-wide market of phosphate fertilizers may grow to more than 4363 thousand tonnes during 2020–2024. It is predicted that the growth rate will accelerate during the forecasting horizon.
The rise of prices of phosphate ores and fertilizers is in constant change, as some resources that have earlier been written off may turn out to be profitable again. Despite this, the reserves of high-quality phosphate ores are diminishing rapidly. At the same time, the costs of mining low-quality ore and producing raw material are increasing.
When taking into account that the largest phosphate rock reserves in Europe are located in Estonia and that comparably low P2O5 concentration is characteristic to the Estonian phosphorite, it is essential to have an overview of the possibilities for processing and using the Estonian phosphate rock.
The report is available at the Geological Report Archive (EGF: 9366).
