Nutrien extract phosphate ore using surface mining techniques. At each minesite, the ore is mixed with recycled water to form a slurry, which is pumped from the mine site to processing facilities.

Because the ore lies about 120 feet below the surface, mining occurs in two stages:
-First, about 45 feet of sand and clay, called overburden, is removed.
-Then, the three draglines dig the remaining 80 feet of overburden so they can mine the ore below.

Phosphate ore is pumped through a pipeline to processing, which includes: screening, washing, floating, dewatering and calcination, if required, to create phosphate rock.

At each mine site, the ore is mixed with recycled water to form a slurry, which is pumped from the mine site to our processing facilities. The ore is then screened to remove coarse materials, washed to remove clay and floated to remove sand to produce phosphate “rock”.

Phosphate rock is the major input in our phosphorus processing operations. Substantially all the phosphate rock produced is used internally for the production of phosphoric acid, SPA, chemical fertilizers, purified phosphoric acid and animal feed products.

Phosphoric acid – the feedstock for all our phosphate products – is produced from phosphate rock by the addition of concentrated sulfuric acid.

Purchased sulfur is converted into sulfuric acid.