By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The U.S. supply of phosphate available for mining is dwindling and could be exhausted within 20 years, according to those in the mining and chemical industries.

Jean Payne, president of the Illinois Chemical and Fertilizer Assoc. (IFCA), warns the United States will likely run dry of known phosphate deposits in mines within the next two decades. In Florida, home of the “Phosphate Belt,” court action brought by environmentalists is prohibiting mining companies from deploying new technology capable of extracting deep deposits of phosphates, she said.

“A lot of our U.S. companies that mine phosphorous in Florida have new mining technologies to get to harder-to-reach areas, but they continue to get stonewalled by the (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) EPA and related federal agencies and cannot get the permits to continue to mine,” Payne said. “It’s sad because the U.S. has been an exporter of phosphorous. It was one of the fertilizer materials we had enough of that (we) could actually export it.”
The world’s largest known reserve of phosphorous is located in the Middle East and has yet to be tapped. “A lot of countries in the Middle East understand they are sitting on a gold mine for nutrient mining,” said Payne.

With agriculture’s goal of doubling crop production by 2050 in order to feed an expanding population, fertilizer use will be a key component. Payne worries if the U.S. becomes an importer of phosphorous and continues to import nitrogen, costs for fertilizers could present a problem for producers.

“For the U.S. it is a little bit of a cloudy picture, because as the phosphorous mines in Florida become depleted, we will be looking to import more. We already import half of our nitrogen, so it is a troubling picture for domestic fertilizer production. That’s not to say we won’t be able to import what we need, but we will be at the mercy of a lot of other forces when relying on imports,” Payne said.

Regarding mounting public, environmentalist and government pressure to reduce the amount of fertilizers farmers use on their fields, she referenced a recent report from the Washington, D.C.-based The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) showing farmers are producing more crops today than in 1980, while using fewer nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous.

“(TFI) looked back at USDA statistics and information provided by the fertilizer sector and compared it to corn yields. The report shows that because of biotechnology, efficiency and better fertilizer management, corn yields are up tremendously and farmers are not overusing fertilizers,” said Payne, who added environmentalists are also pushing for a return to the days when farmers used only “organic” fertilizers on their fields.

“People are under the impression sometimes that there are enough organic properties to use as nutrients, but when you are looking at 20 million acres of crops in Illinois alone, we would have to grow our livestock production by several hundred percent – and build more CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) – in order to begin to try to produce enough nutrients for manure to take care of the crops,” said Payne.

“That’s why those products have been mined for the last 100 years, particularly potassium and phosphates.”

Illinois, in particular, has serious soil phosphorous deficits in some corn-growing areas where livestock is not present, Payne said, exacerbating the need for applying phosphorous to crop fields.

Mosaic, a spinoff of Cargill’s fertilizer holdings created through a merger with IMC Agrico, is one of the last few standing companies in the phosphate mining business in Florida, according to a special report titled “Phosphate at the Crossroads,” published by online Tampa Bay magazine Bay Soundings.
The report states Florida phosphate provides American farmers with 75 percent of their fertilizer needs and fills 25 percent of the world’s supply.

However, “phosphate migration in south Florida has met with fierce opposition from forces concerned with impacts to the Peace River, a critical source of drinking water for southwest Florida,” according to the report, authored by Mary Kelley Hoppe.

Phosphate supplies have been of concern to U.S. farmers as far back as 1938, when, in a message to Congress, then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke of the importance of the substance as a fertilizer to agriculture and the public.
“The phosphorous content of our land, following generations of cultivation, has greatly diminished,” he stated. “It needs replenishing. I cannot overemphasize the importance of phosphorous not only to agriculture and soil conservation but also the physical health and economic security of the people of the nation. Many of our soil deposits are deficient in phosphorous, thus causing low yield and poor quality of crops and pastures.”

Fast forwarding to the present, Mosaic continues to be rebuffed in its efforts to explore new mining technologies in Florida’s phosphorous-rich Bone Valley region.

“They’re being stymied at every turn by environmental activists and judges,” said Payne. “They’ve even had to shut down the mine a couple of times.”