sedimentary phosphorite / carbonatite
Phosphate prospectivityacross the USA & Canada.
Sedimentary phosphorite and carbonatite-hosted phosphate, ranked and explained across the United States and Canada.
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· Australia
Not modelled
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✓ United States
Ranked targets
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✓ Canada
Ranked targets
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Everywhere else
Not modelled
Ranked targets come with national models in the United States and Canada. Next, the models are retrained on the full record and new sources, such as hyperspectral imagery, before we use them to rank and select ground.
How we rank phosphate ground
From a country to a decision.
- 01 · Atlas
Know the ground
The geology, structure, recorded deposits, tenure and geochemistry over the ground, on one map with the source of every layer.
See Atlas - 02 · Open Ground
Find ground you can peg
Which ground is open, held or excluded, read from each licensing authority's own register.
See Open Ground - 03 · Prospectivity
Rank it for phosphate
The ground scored for phosphate, with the evidence behind it and ranked targets in the United States and Canada.
See Prospectivity - 04 · Spectral
Map the alteration
The alteration minerals and the structures that control them, from satellite: regional to district scale, and camp scale from WorldView-3.
See Spectral - 05 · Due Diligence
Check before committing
Tenure, land access, environment and the real cost to hold and test a phosphate position.
See Due Diligence -
Talk to us about phosphate
Partners, investors, publishers and researchers.
The deposit system
The phosphate system.
Phosphate rock is the raw material of the world's phosphorus supply: the nutrient half of modern fertiliser, and increasingly a battery material through lithium-iron-phosphate chemistry. Nearly all of it is held in one mineral family: apatite.
Read more: the deposit model, why it matters and where it is used +
More on phosphate
Apatite concentrates in two great deposit families: marine sedimentary phosphorites, laid down on ancient continental shelves where nutrient-rich upwelling ocean water met shallow seas, and carbonatite intrusions, rare carbonate-rich igneous bodies whose weathered caps can upgrade apatite to ore grade. MineDSS models both.
The deposit model
Sedimentary phosphorites form on continental shelves during episodes of intense biological productivity: phosphorus rained out of upwelling ocean water accumulates as pelletal and nodular apatite in dark shales, cherts and carbonates, over areas that can span whole basins. They carry a distinctive geochemical package: calcium and fluorine in the apatite lattice, uranium substituted into it (which gives many phosphorites a measurable radiometric signature), and light rare earths and yttrium scavenged from seawater. Carbonatite systems concentrate apatite magmatically, alongside strontium-rich carbonates and rare-earth minerals, and are frequently marked by ring-shaped magnetic anomalies and fenite alteration halos.
Why it matters
Phosphate is a food-security mineral before it is anything else: there is no substitute for phosphorus in agriculture, and a large share of world supply comes from a small number of countries. It appears on the critical-minerals lists of the European Union, Canada and other jurisdictions, and demand has broadened with the rise of lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, which use purified phosphoric acid. Domestic, well-characterised phosphate resources therefore matter to fertiliser security and to the battery supply chain at once.
Where it's used
The overwhelming majority of phosphate rock becomes fertiliser: phosphoric acid, ammonium phosphates and superphosphates. Purified phosphoric acid and its salts go into animal feed, food additives and detergents, and increasingly into lithium-iron-phosphate battery cathodes for vehicles and grid storage. Elemental phosphorus supports flame retardants, herbicides, semiconductors, and speciality chemicals. Fluorine recovered from apatite processing is also a meaningful by-product source of fluorochemicals.
Questions
Phosphate: common questions.
Which phosphate deposit types does MineDSS model? +
The two families that supply essentially all phosphate: marine sedimentary phosphorites (basin-scale accumulations of pelletal apatite laid down beneath ancient nutrient-rich seas) and carbonatite-hosted apatite systems, where a rare carbonate-rich magma concentrates apatite magmatically and weathering can upgrade it further. Both carry a distinctive calcium-strontium-uranium-rare-earth signature with a measurable radiometric expression that the model is built to read.
How is the model tested, and where can I run phosphate? +
Every MineDSS model is tested before it is served: we withhold whole blocks of ground, rebuild the model without them, and check that it still ranks the anomalous samples there above background, with test ground kept spatially separate. A model that does not pass our release gates is not used, for any mineral, in any country. National models for phosphate run in the United States and Canada, with ranked targets. Phosphate is not modelled outside those countries. Skill is model-level, never a specific site's measured accuracy, and never a discovery or JORC / NI 43-101 resource claim.
Which pathfinder elements track phosphate? +
The apatite association: calcium and fluorine from the apatite lattice itself, strontium for the carbonatite connection, uranium for the radiometric signature of marine phosphorite, and lanthanum and yttrium for the rare earths apatite scavenges from seawater and carbonatite melts. These elements are part of the geochemical record our models learn from. In a run on any piece of ground, the map itself is read from geology and rock age, gravity and magnetics, radiometrics, terrain, satellite radar and spectral alteration, so it covers ground that has never been sampled.
Does a high MineDSS score mean a deposit or a resource estimate? +
No. A high score means its evidence closely matches ground where samples assay anomalously high for the target mineral, and it merits closer exploration attention. It is not a discovery, not a JORC or NI 43-101 resource or reserve estimate, and not drilling or investment advice. MineDSS ranks prospectivity to help prioritise where to look; confirming whether phosphate is present, and in what grade and quantity, still requires field programmes, drilling and independent assessment by qualified professionals.
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Partners
Exploration and mining companies interested in working with us.
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Investors
The record, the models and the ground they point to.
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Publishers and researchers
Geological surveys, universities and programmes whose work the record is built on.
MineDSS ranks prospectivity to help you decide where to explore next. It is not a discovery, not a JORC or NI 43-101 resource or reserve estimate, and not drilling or investment advice.