The deposit is limited by the Ha’il arch complex in the east, Wadi Sirhan, Quraymiz area in the South, and Iraqi and Jordanian borders in the north and the west.

In the Al Khabra area, the Arqah Phosphorite member is repeatedly exposed by the set of northwest trending faults. The member varies in thickness from 1.3 metres to 5.6 metres and averages 3.09 metres. The phosphates layers comprise an original succession of carbonate-cemented sub-cycles, now represented by friable, semi-friable and residual carbonate-cemented phosphorite. Graded bedding is ubiquitous; with the pelletal grain size decreasing upwards in successive sub-cycles (fining upwards). Occasional barren limestone and chert interbeds are documented within the phosphorite sequence.

Al Khabra is an open pit mine producing phosphate ore for processing into phosphate concentrate.

Conventional truck and shovel with drilling and blasting has been selected for the majority of the mining operation, but includes a component of ripping in waste material of thickness less than 3m. This method is expected to bring operational efficiency, best selectivity, and low dilution factors.

Waste rock is used to progressively backfill the mine void.

Run of mine rock with a maximum size of 150mm is conveyed to the beneficiation plant and is screened and sorted to remove chert which is discharged to the tailings storage facility. An optical sorter and X-ray transmission (XRT) sorter are employed to remove siliceous material, which is also discharged to the TSF. These sorting techniques contribute to improved water and energy efficiency in mining industries, by ensuring waste materials are removed, rather than proceeding through the process for treatment. Non chert material is discharged into the secondary crushing circuit (impact crushers) and the crushed product is re-cycled back over the pre-screen to deliver a uniform size to a blended ore stockpile.

Dust collector systems will extract dust, which is filtered through a dust collection filter, with the clean air being vented to atmosphere. Periodic pulse air is used to knock the dust particles off the dust collection filter. The dust particles fall into the dust collection silo through a rotary valve, which ensures a vacuum pressure is maintained within the dust extraction system. The dust collection silo will be periodically emptied by a vacuum truck. Additionally, process water is sprayed on the blended ore stockpile to control dust.

The blended ore is fed into blade mills with process water, to form a slurry, which is screened and ground to separate slimes. The purpose of the Blade Mill is not to break the ore down in size, but to break up the mud and clays and clean the rocks surface. A dust collector system is included here also. Hydrosizer units are used to achieve size classification by using up-flow water flow to remove finer smaller particles from the slurry. Water is drained from the sized material and de-watered sized ore tested to determine the grade of the sized material. If it meets the required grade it is milled/washed and pumped to the Phosphoric acid plant. If it fails to meet the required grade it is milled and sent to a flotation circuit.

Oversize material undergoes further grinding, milling, crushing. If the sized material meets the required grade specification it will be pumped to the concentrate tank, if not it will be pumped to the de-slime cyclones from which underflow is directed to the floatation process, while overflow is thickened using flocculant before being dewatered.

The beneficiation plant uses open circuit reverse flotation whereby the gangue minerals (silica and carbonate) are floated and the phosphate mineral is depressed reporting out the bottom of the last cell. Flotation reagents (amine, sulphonated fatty acid and phosphoric acid) and process water are added before the slurry is fed to one of the six floatation trains. Froth from the floatation circuit gravitates to the tailings thickener, and the concentrate flows out from the bottom of the last cell into a pump hopper.

The concentrate is pumped to thickening cyclones located above the belt filter plant. Thickening cyclone unde ........