Mineral Commodity Summaries 2015 Mineral Commodity Summaries 2015

Abstract

(Data in thousand metric tons unless otherwise noted) Domestic Production and Use: Phosphate rock ore was mined by 5 firms at 11 mines in 4 States and processed into to an estimated 27.1 million tons of marketable product valued at $2.4 billion, f.o.b. mine. Florida and North Carolina accounted for about 80% of total domestic output; the remainder was produced in Idaho and Utah. Marketable product refers to beneficiated phosphate rock with phosphorus pentoxide (P 2 O 5) content suitable for phosphoric acid or elemental phosphorus production. More than 95% of the U.S. phosphate rock mined was used to manufacture wet-process phosphoric acid and superphosphoric acid, which were used as intermediate feedstocks in the manufacture of granular and liquid ammonium phosphate fertilizers and animal feed supplements. Approximately 45% of the wet-process phosphoric acid produced was exported in the form of upgraded granular diammonium and monoammonium phosphate (DAP and MAP, respectively) fertilizer, and merchant-grade phosphoric acid. The balance of the phosphate rock mined was for the manufacture of elemental phosphorus, which was used to produce phosphorus compounds for a variety of food-additive and industrial applications.