The principal deposits in France are in the Somme and Oise basins. The best French deposits are higher grade than the Belgian, as they carry 50 to 80 per cent. of bone phosphate, but they are nearly exhausted, only low-grade material remaining. The production from 1910 to 1914 was about 300,000 tons annually.
Important deposits of phosphate rock in Russia can be divided into the northern, central, and southern groups. The deposits of the southern group were the only ones exploited before the war. Their output was about 25,000 tons a year—very small in comparison with the size of the deposits, which are estimated to contain more than 1,500,000,000 tons. Some of the rock is high grade, carrying as much as 75 per cent. tricalcium phosphate, but the normal grade is about 50 per cent.
The only deposits worked extensively in Spain are apatite veins in the Province of Caceras. After lying idle many years these deposits were reopened and produced 28,000 tons in 1917.
Low-grade phosphate in the form of beds of nodules occurs in England, and in Wales. The production has been slight because the deposits are too small for commercial exploitation.
Africa.
—The principal deposits of phosphate rock in Tunis are the Gafsa fields, in the southern half of the country. There phosphate occurs in beds several feet thick, but only those carrying more than 58 per cent. phosphate of lime are exploited. The deposits can be traced for several hundred miles, and constitute a reserve of hundreds of millions of tons. Tunis now produces more phosphate than any other foreign country, its annual output being between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000 tons, most of which goes to southern Europe.
The deposits of phosphate rock in Algeria are continuations of those in Tunis, the important mining districts being in eastern Algeria. The production is over 500,000 tons a year, and the exported rock carries 58 to 68 per cent. of lime phosphate.
Extensive deposits of phosphate occur in Egypt, near the Red Sea, in thin and irregular beds of the same geologic age (Eocene) as the deposits in Tunis and Algeria. The best deposits average 70 per cent. lime phosphate and the output in 1916 was 125,000 tons. There are mines 20 miles from Port Safalga, and concessions 12 miles inland from Kosseir and also at Sebaia, on the eastern bank of the Nile between Keneh and Assouan. Beds of phosphate are found in other districts on both sides of the Nile valley. Practically all the raw rock phosphate produced contains 65 per cent. or more of tricalcium phosphate and is exported mainly to Japan.
Deposits of phosphate occur 80 to 120 kilometers from the city of Tripoli in beds more than 1 meter thick. These beds probably are a continuation of the phosphate deposits in southern Tunis.
Deposits of phosphate are reported in Morocco 125 kilometers south-southwest of Casa Blanca on the west coast and 70 kilometers from the end of a railroad. These deposits are said to be comparable to the Gafsa field, in Tunis.