"Currently, our knowledge of this subject is limited and superficial and has its basis in partial and somewhat dated information," admitted Jaanus Purga.

"We all know that due to Estonia's historical experience, phosphate rock has mostly been associated with negative emotions, but time has moved on. We should familiarize ourselves with the state of the Estonian mineral resources today and their possible uses, so that the state and the local communities could benefit through the creation of added value and the environmental impact would be minimal," said Purga.

In the mid-1980s, preliminary explorations of the phosphate rock layers were carried out in northern Estonia, which revealed it to contain one of the richest deposits in Europe, but the Soviet authorities' plans to begin extracting it were halted by a vast environmentalist movement.

According to Purga, the aim of exploring the potential uses of phosphate rock is to evaluate the quantity, quality, and accessibility of the existing deposits, and to determine whether they could be utilized using modern, clean technologies.

VKG intends to involve specialists and scientists from Estonia as well as from the rest of the world in the project and to cooperate closely with all the interest groups and the local governments in the areas where the phosphate rock deposits are located.

According to the initial plan, the survey will be launched this fall and take several years to complete.

Sigrid Maasen