ECONOMIC PREFERENCES OF MECHANICAL ACTIVATION OVER MINERAL BENEFICIATION FOR PHOSPHATE ROCK DIRECT APPLICATIONS

The direct application of phosphate rock seems to offer a better alternative in terms of low cost, least energy-intensive and sophistication of processing of the phosphate ore to produce soluble fertilizers. On the other hand, lower sensitivity to the ore quality offers a big advantage and the presence of impurities, which may play a positive significant role in the process in addition to the technique flexibility in utilizing of some useful elements needed for plant growth. All these factors can be expressed in terms of the economic advantage of the mechanical activation technique. In this study, Red Sea phosphate ore was subjected to the mechanical activation treatment with and without the beneficiation. Various products before and after activation were compared in terms of solubility and the process economy. The results showed that the mechanical activation is economically preferable.