LUCKNOW: In a few weeks, Uttar Pradesh will become the third state in the country that will provide rock phosphate, touted to be more precious than gold, on a large scale. The mining department has commenced the process of auctioning 10 mineral blocks and has posted the tender document over MSTC, the Union government owned e-commerce portal that attracts companies from across the country and not just Uttar Pradesh.
Among the 10 blocks that are spread over Lalitpur and Sonbhadra districts, the maximum revenue is expected to come from Sonrai phosphorite block situated 75km away from the Lalitpur town in Mehrauni tehsil. Spread over an area of 221 hectare, the block is estimated to hold 16.52 tonnes of rock phosphate.
Having a high phosphoric content, the rocks found in the Sonrai basin of the Vindhyachal mountain range are extremely rich in P2O5 (phosphorus pentoxide). In India, only Rajasthan (92% supply) and Madhya Pradesh (8% supply) have phosphorite mines which yield about 1,200-1,500 thousand tonnes of rocks in a year. Indian Bureau of Mines in its yearbook released in June 2020 stated that in 2018-19, the country imported 7.5 million tonnes of rock phosphate with supply originating mainly from Jordan, Morocco and Egypt.
