The global distribution of phosphate rock is not balanced, Morocco is the world's largest phosphate resource reserves
First, Morocco is rich in phosphate mineral resources, accounting for 75 percent of the global total, ranking first in the world.
Phosphorite resources are mainly in the form of Marine sedimentary phosphorite, with the largest sedimentary deposits in North Africa, China, the Middle East and the United States. At the same time, a large number of igneous events have been found in Brazil, Canada, Finland, Russia and South Africa. Abundant phosphoric acid resources are found on the continental shelves and seamounts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The world's phosphate ore resources exceed 300 billion tons, including 71 billion tons of basic reserves. Basic resource reserves are mainly distributed in Africa, North America, Asia, the Middle East and other regions, Africa and the Middle East together account for nearly 80 percent of the global total, of which more than 85 percent are concentrated in Morocco, Western Sahara, Egypt, Algeria and China. Morocco and Western Sahara alone account for 70 percent of the global total, the highest in the world.
Second, China is also one of the major countries in phosphate ore, with proven total resources second only to Morocco, but the reserves of high-grade phosphate ore are low.
Our country is rich in phosphate mineral resources and has identified mineral reserves of 17.6 billion tons, ranking second in the world, next only to Morocco and Western Sahara. It is one of the characteristics of phosphate rock resources in China that there are more middle and low grade ore and less rich ore. 93 percent of phosphate deposits in China are medium and low grade, with high impurity content. The reserves of high grade phosphate ore with P2O5 greater than 30 percent are only 1.069 billion tons, accounting for only 8.12 percent of the total reserves. Even including the reserves of medium grade phosphate ore with grade greater than 26 percent will not exceed 3 billion tons, with an average grade of only 16.95 percent .
Third, the world phosphorite production areas are mainly concentrated in East Asia, Africa, North America, China is the world's largest producer of phosphorite.
China, the United States, Morocco, Western Sahara, Russia, Vietnam and other countries are the largest producers of phosphate rock. East Asia produces the most, accounting for 36 percent of global production, followed by Africa with 25 percent , North America with 11 percent , and West Asia, East Asia and Central Asia with 10 percent each. In 2017, global phosphate ore production reached a recent peak of 269 million tons. From 2018 to 2020, it has decreased to 249 million tons, 227 million tons and 223 million tons respectively.
Share of Global Phosphate Rock Production by Region in 2020 (Data source: Wind)
At present, China's annual output of phosphate ore is more than 60 million tons, far higher than the output of the United States, Morocco and Western Sahara and other countries or regions. Hubei (48 percent ), Guizhou (23 percent ), Yunnan (19 percent ), Sichuan (7 percent ) and Henan (2 percent ) are the five provinces with the most abundant phosphate ore in China. Among them, hubei province produces more than 20 million tons of phosphate ore annually, making hubei province the largest phosphate ore producer in China. However, the output of phosphate rock in hubei province is only 214,000 tons, not only lower than that of Yunnan-Guizhou (636,700 tons) and Guizhou (544,300 tons), but also significantly lower than the national average of 318,600 tons. The integration of phosphate resources in Hubei province and the whole country will be an inevitable trend in the future.
