Mosaic South Fort Meade Mine, Florida

Mosaic’s South Fort Meade Mine is currently the second largest of Mosiac’s mines in the Bone Valley, producing around 4.5 million tons of phosphate rock per year. The first step in the mining process is to dig trenches and berms around the immediate area to be mined, so that some of the groundwater drains into the perimeter ditch, keeping the mining area from becoming more of a mud puddle than it already is. Then draglines remove the sandy soil that covers the ore body, some 10-50 feet below. After the outer layer of overburden is moved to the side, draglines extract the ore body, known as the matrix, which is around 1/3 clay, 1/3 sand, and 1/3 phosphate rock. Each scoop of matrix is dumped in a pool, where high-powered steerable water-jets break down the material into a slurry. The slurry goes in a 20-inch pipeline to a beneficiation plant, a large processing facility which, by washing, screening, flotation, and other means, separates the sand, clay, and ore.