Deposit types/Phosphate rock

Marine phosphorite

Beds of phosphate pellets and nodules within marine sediments.

What it is

Beds of phosphate pellets and nodules within marine sediments.1

How it forms

Beds form in warm-latitude upwelling zones with open-sea connection, where plankton is abundant and organic-rich sediment evolves into phosphorite.1

Host rocks

Phosphorite, marl, shale, chert, limestone and dolomite.1

Where it forms

Shelves, platforms and basins with open ocean links.1

How old

Precambrian to Miocene1

Story cards

Sources

  1. Mineral Deposit Models (Bulletin 1693, Cox and Singer, eds., 1986) US Geological Survey

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Draglines by Roy Luck, CC BY 2.0; Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Chuquicamata from the ISS by Alexander Gerst (ESA), CC BY-SA 2.0.