Jordan is situated on the northwestern side of the Arabian Plate, along the eastern flank of the ancient Tethys Ocean on the western side of the Dead Sea Transform. The country hosts huge phosphate deposits. The deposits at Eshidiya are comprised of overburden, four phosphate beds (A0, Al, A2 and A3), a coquina/marl waste bed, and two silicified phosphate chert interwaste beds.

The Eshidiya phosphate deposits in central Jordan lie within the Upper Cretaceous limestone plateau. They comprise about 125 sq. km and are estimated to be 65 million years old (Upper Cretaceous). The deposits are sedimentary in nature and are thought to have been formed in the following sequence:

(i) upwelling of cold, phosphate-rich seawater into warm shallow waters,
(ii) growth of algae, plants, fish, and mammals due to the rich nutrients,
(iii) phosphatization of calcareous, siliceous and clay sediments on the shallow sea floor, along with deposition of phosphate-rich teeth and bones from animals,
(iv) reworking of the phosphate sediments by current or wave action and finally,
(v) after the seawater receded, weathering of the phosphate sediments, with rains that leached the softer limestone and left behind the quartz and less soluble phosphates.

The phosphorites of Jordan are present within Al-Hisa Phosphorite Formation (AHP). In general, the AHP consists of phosphorites, bedded chert, limestones, oyster buildups, organic-rich marl (oil shale ........

The mining area of Eshidiya mine is carried out by open pit mining method.

At Eshidiya, the overburden is drilled and blasted, and then removed with draglines. Overburden removal is down to the top of layer Al. The phosphate ore layers Al, A2 and A3 and the two inner waste layers are selectively removed with a system of shovels and trucks. It is important to note that the ore beds are kept separate through beneficiation, since they grade upward in different manner and produce products of different grade. The products are classified as: (1) Al Ore: 68–70% product, (2) A2 Ore: 73–75% TCP product and (3) A3 Ore: 75–77% TCP product. A 65% TCP sub-commercial product is also produced.

Mining by uncovering the ore, which is the currently applied method, where mining is done through:

- Removing the overburden after drilling and applying explosions to the rock layer.
- Moving the overburden by giant trucks to the specified locations.
- Directly removing the overburden, after the explosions, by hydraulic draglines to the specified location.
- Clustering phosphate rocks by heavy bulldozers, truck loading and moving the rocks to the crushers for crushing and sieving, and preparing them for direct drying.
- If the type of the phosphate is of the lesser quality, it is sent to the upgrading equipment using the flotation process.

A1 Layer: mining is done at its three levels B, C, and D, where the ore requires washing and qualit ........

The run of mines ores from the mining pits are then transported to screening and crushing plants, which will remove the +12.5mm oversize. The phosphate ores -12.5mm are temporarily stockpiled on a linear storage according to their layers A1, A2 and A3. The screened ores or mixture of ores from the mine storage are then conveyed to the mill site.

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