Tapira’s phosphate deposit is located in an ultrabasic intrusion formed by a sequence of pulses that started with silicate ultrabasic and ended with carbonate and hydrothermal events. This petrologic evolution over time created a petrographical zonation with ultramaphics filling mainly the borders of the structure, while the late phases concentrated within the core zone. Intense weathering was the strongest agent responsible for the phosphate concentrations. In the weathered zone, can notice a vertical typological and chemical zonation. From a typological point of view, this gradation is continuous from the top surface towards the base. It can be grouped into four zones, from top down.
- Overburden containing silt-clay material, barren with a thickness from 30 to 55 m;
- Very weathered rock with high titanium concentration, with thickness varying from 25 to 35 m;
- Weathered rock with the highest phosphate concentration and with a thickness varying from 25 to 30 m;
- Bed rock.

Phosphate rock is extracted from an using an open-cut truck and shovel mining method. The phosphate ore is concentrated in the beneficiation plant before transport through a slurry pipeline to the Uberaba ertilizer processing complex.

Typical bench height is 13m while the average layer thicknesses range from 30m to 70m.

Overburden: Average thickness 35 meters; Soils and rocks extremely altered; Grades of P2O5 < 5 % e TiO2 < 10%; Bench 13 meters high.

Phosphate Ore: Average thickness 70 meters; Rocks medium to fairly altered; Grades of P2O5 = 5 % e TiO2 < 10%; Bench 10 and 13 metes high.

CMT’s (Tapira Mining Complex) process is a fairly typical one. Ore first goes through primary, secondary and tertiary crushing and is then sized to separate friable and granulated ore. Both go through grinding, magnetic separation, desliming and flotation. 4% of the granulated ore is magnetite while the friable ore has 10%. In the desliming phase, the granulated ore loses another 4% due to slimes while the friable ore loses 16%. The slimes from the friable line become an ultrafine concentrate and are shipped, via lorry transport, to the chemical complex Uberaba. The flotation phase sees 14% of the granulated ore and 37% of the friable ore going to tailings. The two concentrates are then mixed, regrinded and sent via pipeline to Uberaba.

At Tapira produced concentrate contains 35.4% of P2O5.