peak phosphorus: reserves vs production, page-11

dbk/others

Just wondering have anyone has any info/research on how much rock phosphate Morocco has that is near surface and not contaminated with uranium ? I have been doing a bit of research and am finding it hard to piece it all together. They have been mining near surface uncontaminated rock phosphate for a long time and I am trying to get an idea of how much they have left. They are looking at attracting investment from companies processing contaminated rock phosphate.

"Phosphates are a promising source of uranium, whose market is enjoying sustained growth. IAEA figures put Morocco’s uranium resources in phosphate deposits at around 6 million tons, which corresponds to twice the world’s resources in uranium deposits.

AREVA and the OCP plan to launch a joint study into the feasibility of an industrial site producing uranium from phosphoric acid. "

I suspect this is one of the reason Morocco is looking at attracting major investment, as Phosphoric Acid plants are not cheap to setup. Might be the case a lot of OCP's forecasted increase in rock phosphate production might be from contaminated reserves they would find hard to export.

I get the feeling sources of near surface uncontaminated rock phosphate of a med/high that can be used as an export product are becoming rarer.