Syria
Deposit No. 1184
This page is part of the Facilities Collection.
Phosphate mined at Deposit No. 1184 is bedded with both hard and soft phosphate of the late Cretaceous era. 1 2 The General Company for Phosphate and Mines (GECOPHAM) mines the deposits, and the combined capacity of Eastern A, Eastern B, and the Khneifess phosphate rock mines is 2.65Mt per year. 3
Of proliferation concern, the Sawwaneh phosphate rock located at Eastern A and B contains about 60 to 80 parts per million of uranium. 4 While the micro-pilot Uranium Recovery Plant at Homs is not attempting to extract uranium from this particular phosphate rock, it could potentially exploit this resource in the future. 5
Glossary
- Uranium
- Uranium is a metal with the atomic number 92. See entries for enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, and highly enriched uranium.
Sources
- S. Atfeh, “The phosphoric resources of Syria,” in Phosphate Deposits of the World, Vol. 2, Phosphate Rock Resources, eds. A.J.G. Notholt, R.P. Sheldon, and D.F. Davidson (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
- Carlotta B. Chernoff, and G.J. Orris, “Data Set of World Phosphate Mines, Deposits, and Occurrences - Part A.: Geological Data,” U.S. Geological Survey, 2002.
- Thomas R. Yager, “The Mineral Industries of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria,” U.S. Geological Survey, 2001, http://minerals.usgs.gov.
- S. Atfeh, “The phosphoric resources of Syria,” Phosphate Deposits of the World, Vol. 2, Phosphate Rock Reserves, A.J.G. Notholt, R.P. Sheldon, and D.F. Davidson eds., (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
- Y. Koudsi, S. Khorfan, H. Shleweit, A. Dahdouh, and M. Sweid, “Effect of Oxidation-Reduction on the Extraction of Uranium from Wet Phosphoric Acid by DEHPA/TOPO,” Aalam Al-Zarra, March-April 1998, 54, pp. 59-62; S. Khorfan, Y. Koudsi, A. Dahdouh, and H. Shleweit, “Preliminary investigation on the extraction of uranium from Syrian phosphoric acid,” International Conference on Uranium Extraction, Chinese Nuclear Society, 1996.