Phosphate beneficiation in Florida generates over one ton of phosphatic clay(slime)per ton of phosphate rock produced.On that basis,the industry generates approximately 30 million tons of waste clay per year.Since the beginning of the large scale washing and desliming practice for phosphate beneficiation,over 2 billion tons of such slime have been accumulated,which contain approximately 600 million tons of phosphate rock,0.6 million tons of rare earth elements(REEs),and 80 million kilograms of uranium.However,recovery of these valuable elements from the phosphatic clay may well be the most challenging subject in mineral processing,due to the following characteristics of the slime:(1)In form of a dilute(averaging 3%solids)slurry.(2)Extremely fine in size with over 50%below 2 microns.(3)Containing about 50%clay minerals as montmorillonite,kaolin,illite,and palygorskite.(4)Containing a large amount of dolomite(over 5%MgO).(5)Containing >5%Al2O3.This paper covers results from preliminary testing of two approaches.The first approach involved three-stage cycloning using cyclones of 5 inch,2 inch and 1 inch in diameter,respectively,to remove clay minerals followed by flotation and leaching.The second approach is a two-step leaching process.In the first step,selective leaching was conducted to remove magnesium thus allowing production of phosphoric acid suitable for diammonium phosphate phosham manufacturing in the second leaching step.