Comprehensive Recovery and Sustainable Development of Phosphate Resources

It is well known that phosphate is a non-renewable resource essential for plant growth and crop production, and it is, therefore, vital to feeding the fast growing population of the world. But it is not widely aware that there are many other valuable elements in phosphate ore, which may play significant roles in the development of future energy, particularly green energy, high tech equipment, and advancement of various key technologies. These elements include rare earths, uranium and thorium. Uranium in phosphate accounts for more than 80% of the world unconventional uranium resources, while rare earth elements in the world's annual production of phosphate rock (about 170 million tons) total nearly 100,000 tons. If these elements are not recovered during phosphate mineral processing and phosphoric acid manufacturing, they mostly end up in fertilizers and eventually being spread on farm lands, making it impossible to ever recover. Based on a review of selected research and development papers, the author provides his viewpoint of treating phosphate ore as an energy mineral, and suggests several approaches for recovering energy values from phosphate as well as for treatment and utilization of wastes associated with phosphate mining and processing.