Phosphates at Fort Lonesome; and Borden, Big Four Mine (Wilbur Smith and Asso- 

 ciates 1980). 



As the phosphate industry expands to meet consumer demands, a number of 

 new phosphate mines will be developed. Several are scheduled for Southwest 

 Florida (Table 1). 



Beneficiation is a process used to upgrade phosphate ore. In order to 

 remove impurities, a mechanical process involving washing, milling, screening, 

 clarifying, separating, and floating is used. These processes require large 

 quantities of water as high as 10,000 gal per minute at the mines and even 

 higher at recovery plants. For the most part, the reauired water is obtained 

 from wells in the Floridan aquifer (Canterbury 1978). Generally speaking, 

 companies engaged in phosphate mining also are engaged in beneficiation. 



After beneficiation, phosphate rock generally holds 1% to 70% moisture 

 content. At this stage, the product is termed "wet rock." Because some con- 

 tracts require a product that does not exceed 3% moisture content, rock drying 

 is a major operation. Once dried, the pulverized rock may be shipped directly 

 to the customer for acidulation, or applied directly to the soil as fertil- 

 izer. Some phosphate rock is subjected to high temperatures to destroy the 

 organic materials. This rock is called calcined phosphate. 



Important products produced by the phosphate industry are sulfuric acid, 

 phosphoric acid slag, ferrophosphorus, triple superphosphate, ammonium phos- 

 phates, superphosphate, superphosphoric acid, elemental phosphorus, and animal 

 feed grade phosphate. 



The transport of phosphate is dependent on rail lines and ports in the 

 Bone Valley area. Trains usually originate at the Tampa Ports with empty cars 

 transported to Bone Valley for loading. Products for export make the return 

 trip to Tampa or other Florida ports. Phosphate products bound for other 

 states move through Plant City, east of Tampa (Wilbur Smith and Associates 

 1980). The port facilities serving the phosphate industry in Southwest Flor- 

 ida are the Ports of Tampa and Port Manatee. The Port of Tampa has six marine 

 loading terminals for rail shipments of phosphate rock and chemicals. Port 

 Manatee, about 25 miles down channel from Tampa, has one phosphate terminal 

 operated by Manatee Terminals, Inc. 



About 40 million tons of rock were produced in 1978 by the phosphate in- 

 dustry in central Florida. Twenty-five million tons of rock were shipped to 

 gulf coast ports. Most of the phosphate is loaded and shipped at the Port of 

 Tampa, relatively small amounts are shipped from Boca Grande (Lee County) and 

 Port Manatee (Wilbur Smith and Associates 1980). 



Hillsborough, Manatee, and DeSoto counties support a variety of phosphate 

 production operations including mining, processing, manufacturing, and market- 

 ing. Since 1967, the marketing patterns in Florida have consisted of (1) do- 

 mestic shipments of dry phosphate rock to the upper gulf coast; (2) dry phos- 

 phate rock shipments along the Atlantic seaports; and (3) dry phosphate rock 

 exported from the country (Canterbury 1978). 



134 



