Mining is a specific way of impoverishing the soil. The method is used to remove phosphate from the soil at an accelerated rate, so that varied vegetation can be created.
This has now been done for ten years at the Oostervoortsche Diep in the north of Drenthe. Soil expert Debby van Rotterdam has been involved all along and shows the result.
“Here you have black soil, it crumbles and is a little moist.” Van Rotterdam lets the lumps pass through her fingers. “This is exactly what the roots like. As a soil scientist, such soil makes you very happy.” The area has been used as agricultural land for many years, which means that a lot of phosphate has ended up in the soil. The soil is mined in order to obtain a varied, species-rich plant growth.
Van Rotterdam agrees that a lot of phosphate has been extracted from the area. “Especially in the places where the phosphate status was very high at the beginning, we see that it is now low. Where the phosphate status was low, it becomes increasingly difficult. So where there is a lot of it you can easily remove it, it becomes more and more harder to get that last bit away.”
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