After a capital investment of $35 million, three years and 160,000 labor hours in the field, an 800,000 tonne MicroEssentials capacity expansion project at Mosaic’s Riverview facility is now complete. A plant at the facility that produces Monoammonium Phosphate (MAP), a widely used commodity fertilizer, was converted to also produce the formulation of MicroEssentials®, one of four specialty fertilizers produced by Mosaic.

Watch this video to hear from members of Riverview’s MicroEssentials Expansion project team.

“Prior to completion of this project, total MicroEssentials production across our North America phosphate operations was 4.3 million tonnes per year,” explains Kelly Strong, Vice President – Operations, Phosphate. “With customer demand for MicroEssentials projected to increase to more than five million tonnes by 2026, we needed this additional production capacity to ensure we’re able to meet that demand.”

MicroEssentials was developed and first produced at Mosaic’s Bartow facility in 2001. Increased customer demand quickly led Mosaic to expand production of various formulations to our Riverview facility in 2005, our Faustina facility in Louisiana in 2012, and our New Wales facility in Florida in 2015.

Production of MicroEssentials S9 began in Riverview’s newly converted plant in May. The first tonnes are expected to be loaded on ships later this month for delivery to customers in Brazil.

When this additional MicroEssentials production at Riverview is fully ramped up, more than half of Mosaic’s U.S. phosphate production will be market-leading, performance fertilizers.

“Growing our production capacity for MicroEssentials and other specialty products is important – not just to keep pace with growing demand – but because it gives us options to stabilize and improve our results,” says Kelly. “We’re in a cyclical business and global demand is influenced by external factors we can’t control, so having a diverse product portfolio and the operational flexibility we need to be able to adjust production helps us steer our own ship.”

Working Together

Before beginning any work, employees and contractors completed Field Level Hazard Assessments to identify and address any potential hazards.

Of all the numbers, those who worked on the project are most proud of this one – ZERO. The $35-million, three-year, 160,000-hour project was completed with no recordable safety or environmental incidents.

“It takes collaboration,” explains Matthew Berg, Sr. Manager, Engineering. “Employees from operations, maintenance, engineering and capital projects worked together with others and contractors to make sure everyone understood – if it can’t be done safely, don’t do it.”

MicroEssentials, or “The Mighty Micro,” packs everything crops need into a single granule of fertilizer – for uniform nutrient distribution, greater nutrient intake and season-long sulfur availability. It includes key nutrients crops need – phosphorus, nitrogen, sulfur and zinc – in a single granule so every plant gets balanced nutrition, across the entire field.

The product line consists of four popular formulations: S9, S10, S15 and SZ. All formulations include nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. The SZ formulation also includes zinc.

Read more about MicroEssentials.