EVALUATION AND EXTRACTION.‘ OF MAXIMUM PHOSPHORUS CONTENT FROM MIXED SAMPLES OF PHOSPHATE ROCKS ORE FROM KURUN AREA, NUBA MOUNTAINS, SUDAN

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study was carried out in order to estimate the concentration of essential and trace elements and the total content of phosphorus and uranium in phosphate rocks and to investigate the possibility of using Sudanese phosphate ores as fertilizer. In this study 45 samples of mixed samples of rock phosphate from the eastern part of Nuba Mountains area, western Sudanlnamely Iebel Kurun near Abu Jebaiha town was analyzed. Two different types of techniques namely atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and UV spectrophotometry were used for measurement of concentrations of 16 elements in phosphate rocks. The mean values of concentration of the elements in Kurun phosphate were found to be: (Na:0.500%), (K:.0.525%), (Mg:0.425%), (Ca: 1 1.845%), (Ni:0.125%), (SiO2:22.865%), (Al: l8.030%), (Fe:7.300%), (Ti:0.095%), (Mn: 420ppm), (Zn: 570ppm), (Cu: 281ppm), (Pb: 275pp1n), (Co: 300ppm), uranium 13 1 ppm. . Rock phosphate ores mixed samples were analyzed for their total phosphorus content measured as P2O5% using colorimetry. The average concentration of total phosphorus was found to be 24.8%. The percentages are suitable for using the ore for production of fertilizer or phosphoric acid. The trace uranium level content was found to be 13 1 ppm; this range is reasonable when it is compared with similar data for phosphate ore from different areas in the world. The results obtained were compared with the data from literature and they showed a good agreement. The best conditions needed to obtain the highest percentage of available phosphorus, which is

found to be 24.8%, is reached by addition of the 10:1 amount of ore and concentrated commercial sulphuric acid respectively and to heat at low temperature (60 -80°C) for 6 hours. '