SUMMARY
The principal use of phosphate rock is as an ingredient of fertilizers. Lesser quantities are consumed in the manufacture of phosphoric acid, in phosphorus used in military operations, in the manufacture of matches, and in metallurgy. Both natural and artificial substitutes are available for many of the uses of phosphate rock.
Phosphate rock is a sedimentary deposit containing phosphate of lime. It occurs as a hard rock between beds of sandstone or shale, as amorphous nodular phosphates in stream deposits, and as a residuum from the decomposition of phosphatic dolomite, limestone, and other phosphate-bearing rocks. The porous limestone of tropical islands, where it is permeated with phosphate leached from guano, is commonly classed as phosphate rock.
The phosphate rock deposits of present commercial importance are situated in the United States, Algeria, Tunis, Egypt, and the islands of the Indian and South Pacific oceans, the United States possessing by far the largest reserves. Smaller deposits, either undeveloped or nearly exhausted, are in Canada, Venezuela, Chile, Belgium, France, Russia, England, Spain, South Australia, and New Zealand.
During the war the exports of phosphate rock from the United States decreased greatly. With the return to normal conditions, however, the United States should experience little difficulty in becoming once more the principal source of phosphate rock.
The principal phosphate-rock deposits are controlled politically by the United States, France (Algeria and Tunis), and Great Britain (Egypt). A number of phosphate-bearing islands in the Pacific Ocean were owned by Germany before the war, but have been seized by Great Britain and Japan.
The commercial control of the deposits of the United States is mainly in the hands of Americans, although German (before the war) and French interests own some of the Florida hard-rock deposits. The deposits of Algeria and Tunis are controlled by French companies. The Egyptian deposits are controlled by two companies, one British and the other Italian.
Germany will be without a source of supply under her own control now that she has lost her colonies.