The phosphate deposits of Florida are sedimentary in origin and part of a phosphate-bearing province that extends from southern Florida north along the Atlantic coast into southern Virginia. Sedimentary phosphate deposits consist of rock in which the phosphate mineral(s) occur in grains, pellets, nodules, and as phosphate replacement of calcium in the remains of animal skeletal material and excrement.

All of Mosaic phosphate deposits are located in the Central Florida Phosphate District. The general description of the phosphatic deposits in Central Florida consist of two geological facies. The phosphate bearing units are within the Bone Valley Member of the Peace River Formation and the undifferentiated Member of the Peace River Formation within the South Florida Extension region of the Central District. The deposit characteristics transition from north east to the south west. The major phosphate bearing units in the north east consist of a productive Bone Valley Member with limited production in the Undifferentiated Member. The phosphate bearing units in the south west exhibit limited production in the Bone Valley Member and a productive Undifferentiated Member of the Peace River Formation.

The phosphate stratigraphy consists of 5 to 50 feet thick, white to brown poorly graded quartz sand with varying abundance of reworked phosphate grains as waste overburden. The economic zone is 13 to 50 feet thick, with a grade ranging from 27 to 35% P2O5. It consist ........

The Mosaic extracts phosphate ore using large surface mining machines - “draglines”. Prior to extracting the ore, the draglines must first remove a 10 to 50 foot layer of sandy overburden.

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