Norway's new phosphate deposits are so massive they could guarantee solar power and electric cars keep running for the next 50 years

• Norge Mining has discovered 77 billion tons of phosphate rock.
• The company's founder said it could satisfy global demand for fertilizer and EVs for 50 years.

Huge phosphate rock deposits discovered in Norway could satisfy global demand for fertilizers and electric vehicles for the next 50 years, the founder of the company set to mine them has said.

Norge Mining, which reportedly found the massive site in southwestern Norway in 2018, announced in May that it had discovered 77 billion tons worth of the mineral, according to The Economist.

"Down to 400 meters, we established two world-class resources, which together allow a supply of raw materials for at least 50 years," Norge Mining's founder and deputy CEO Michael Wurmser told EURACTIV.

According to the OCP Group, a phosphate rock mining company, the rock is used to produce phosphorous, a key ingredient in fertilizers. It can also be processed to form phosphoric acid, which can then be used in a wide range of products, from animal feed to lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, which power solar energy systems and electric cars.

Before Norge's discovery, other major phosphate producers included Morocco, China, the US, and Russia, per a report from the Hague Center for Strategic Studies. But the market was massively disrupted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with one knock-on effect being the soaring price of fertilizer prices.

Russia and China have also long held significant power over global food security, so the impact of the Ukraine war put certain regions at serious risk, Bloomberg reported.

But Wurmser believes that the latest find could help mitigate some of these risks.

"When you find something of that magnitude in Europe, which is larger than all the other sources we know — it is significant," he said.

"We believe the phosphorous that we can produce will be important to the West — it provides autonomy," he added.

As well as discovering phosphate at the site, Norge also found huge deposits of titanium — used to build aeroplanes — and vanadium, which is a key alloy for strengthening steel.