Syria holds 250,000 thousand metric tons of phosphate rock reserves, about 0.34 per cent of the world total, ranking fifteenth of the twenty-four countries the survey names
Claim ID
PHOSRES-001
Exact or summary claim
Syria holds 250,000 thousand metric tons of phosphate rock reserves, about 0.34 per cent of the world total, ranking fifteenth of the twenty-four countries the survey names
Destination
Chapter 9
Status
SUPPORTED
Source
United States Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, Phosphate Rock, February 2026, World Mine Production and Reserves table, read at the render research/CH9_PHOS_mcs2026_phosphate_pages/p002.png (SRC-379)
Source type
Official statistical publication of a national geological survey
Published
2026-02
Accessed
2026-08-23
Measure and scope
Phosphate rock reserves in thousand metric tons, Syrian Arab Republic, as published in the February 2026 edition; the share is 250,000 divided by the world total of 73,000,000, which is 0.3425 per cent, and the rank is among the twenty-four countries named in the table, excluding the 'Other countries' line
Known conflict
THE WORLD TOTAL MOVED BETWEEN EDITIONS AND THE MANUSCRIPT USES THE OLDER ONE. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025 gives 74,000,000 and the 2026 edition gives 73,000,000. Syria's own 250,000 is unchanged, so the share moves only from 0.3378 to 0.3425 per cent and still rounds to 0.34, and the rank is fifteenth in both. THE RANK DEPENDS ON A STATED RULE: three countries share 1,000,000 in the 2026 table, so tie handling must be declared || 28 September 2026 (D-241 item 2): The Ministry of Energy's home page (SRC-696) states phosphate reserves of 1.7 to 1.8 billion tonnes, undated, whose upper end is the USGS figure of 2020 and 2021 and not this row's 250 million; see PHOSRES-002. || Closing pass (D-249 to D-251), 29 September 2026, unit CL09: || 29 September 2026 (closing pass, CL-C): the Statistical Abstract carries no phosphate reserve figure in any edition from 2010 to 2024 (SRC-730 to SRC-744); the official Syrian reserve statement Chapter 9 prints is still the Ministry of Energy's undated range (PHOSRES-002). || READING OF 18 OCTOBER 2026 (D-307; audits/reports/series_leads_verification_2026-10-18/VERIFY.md part C), OO-8: 'THE RANK DEPENDS ON A STATED RULE' is narrower than it reads. Fourteen named countries hold more than Syria's 250,000 in the February 2026 table (Morocco, China, Egypt, Tunisia, Russia, Algeria, Brazil, South Africa, the United States, Finland, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Australia and Kazakhstan), so Syria is fifteenth with the three countries at 1,000,000 treated as tied AND fifteenth however that tie is broken; only dense ranking, which the chapter does not use, gives thirteenth. Counting 'Other countries' (800,000) as an entry would give sixteenth, so that convention does change the rank. Chapter 9 v39 l.67's 'both change the answer if reversed' was wrong of the tie convention, and v40 l.67 states each convention's effect.
Specialist
Mineral reserves estimation
Downstream
Chapters 9 and 10
Action
Print the share and the rank with the EDITION NAMED, because the chapter previously described the 2025 table as 'the current table' and it was not. State the tie rule used for the ranking and state that the count excludes the 'Other countries' line