Good news for fertilizer, solar panel, and electric vehicle battery companies: a massive underground deposit of high-grade phosphate rock has been discovered in Norway, containing enough minerals to meet global demand for those products for the next 50 years.
Norwegian mining company Norge Mining said the 70 billion tonnes of phosphate rock was uncovered in the southwest of Norway, where it sits alongside other minerals such as titanium and vanadium that are used in the aerospace and defense industries.
Phosphate rock is used in the production of phosphorus, an essential component in the fertilizer industry – 90% of the world’s mined phosphate rock goes toward agriculture. It’s also used in the production of lithium-iron-phosphate batteries for electric vehicles, solar panels, and in small quantities in semiconductors and chips. All these products have been designated by the European Commission as “of strategic importance” in the production of key technologies for the green and digital transition.
Norway is also working on phosphorous refining techniques and making this process more environmental friendly because the refining of phosphorous is an extremely carbon-intensive procedure. Currently the most the industry is situated in China, Vietnam and Kazakhstan due carbon emission. But now Jan Christian Vestre, Norway’s minister of trade and industry, emphasized the country’s responsibility in developing the world’s most sustainable mineral industry.
Due to the depth of the ore body, which extends 4,500 meters (2.7 miles) underground, traditional drilling methods are not feasible. As a result, geologists have assessed only one-third of the total volume, reaching depths of 1,500 meters from the surface. This portion alone contains a minimum of 70 billion tonnes of mineralized phosphate rock.