Phosphate is being mined in New Zealand for the first time in nearly 80 years, with the first truckloads delivered to farms this month.
It's a mineral New Zealand farmers rely on for optimal animal feed, with Stats NZ data showing the country imported $26 million worth in July alone.
But it has been controversial due to human rights concerns and pollution at mine sites in Morocco and Western Sahara, the carbon footprint of shipping the product here, and price rises due to the Iran war.
Phosphate deposits are rare in New Zealand. The mineral was mined at Clarendon in Otago until the 1940s, but new investment and geological work have now seen extraction begin again.
"We estimate there's millions of tonnes of [phosphate] rock under the Clarendon Hill," KiwiPhos geologist David Manhire told 1News.
Geoff Loudon, an investor in the company, said it had been "a layer in the ground for 25 million years".
"It just happens to be coming right out to the surface now, and it's available to be mined."
Manhire said the phosphate rock is broken up first before being put through two stages of crushing.
"This fertiliser's priced to be competitive with the existing blends that are available," he said.
However, the amount applied matters.
University of Otago freshwater expert Gerry Closs said it was "a matter of matching the inputs and the outputs".
"So, as long as the amount of phosphorus put in matches the growth of the plants and doesn't run off into nearby rivers, then it's not a problem.”
Runoff can have serious consequences.
"So where the phosphate finds its way down into a lake, that's where you can have the algal blooms and the eutrophication problem."
KiwiPhos has obtained BioGro organic certification.
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