Industrial Minerals - Anaconda Phosphate Plant, Beneficiation and Treatment of Low Grade Idaho Phosphate Rock

The Anaconda phosphate plant was put into operation in the fall of 1923. Its present daily operating capacity is approximately 170 tons of treble superphosphate and 16 tons of phosphoric acid analyzing 42 pct P2 O5 and 52 pct P2 Os, respectively. As a result of the continued increased demand for phosphates, Anaconda decided in 1947 to expand the plant's daily output to 270 tons of treble superphosphate and 54 tons of phosphoric acid. The present daily plant intake is 335 tons of wet (footwall) phosphate rock analyzing 31.7 pct P² O5 and 0.28 pct V² O5. The rock is shipped from Anaconda's mine at Conda, Idaho, in open railroad cars, having been crushed to pass 3/8 in. mesh at the mine.' The expansion program will require an increased intake of 300 tons of rock per day. The hanging-wall rock anaIj-ses approximately 30.5 pct P2 O5 and 0.11 pct V² O5, and will be beneficiated in a new washing plant under construction