Fertiliser is made from phosphate which, although not in short supply since there's thought to be enough around to see us through for 300 years, is certainly in huge demand because of the need to boost food production.

Fertiliser maker Incitec Pivot is the pre-eminent phosphate stock, trading at the highest price yet for a manufacturer in Australia, $150 give or take $10.

Little wonder, then, that the mining minnows are lining up for a piece of the action.

CI Resources boasts a fivefold price rise in the past year.

Like the uranium boom that never happened, or at least has been put on hold, there are even phosphate floats.

The grandly named Phosphate Australia has recently listed, trading respectably just below 70 cents. It's next door - though when you're talking the middle of nowhere that can still be quite a way - to Minemakers in the Northern Territory which, thanks to a feasibility study on a phosphate project, has had a 600 per cent soar in its share price in a year.

Perhaps the best sign of a boom under way is that mining entrepreneur Joseph Gutnick, known as Diamond Joe, has moved from precious stones to a precious rock.

His WCP Resources, normally a gold digger, has a phosphate tenement near Mount Isa.

Although Redstone Resources has added a phosphate prospective in Brazil to its search, its share price has been going backwards.

South Boulder Mines, which just at the right time added uranium to its nickel and gold exploration, has bought an option for three exploration licences for phosphate to keep it ahead of the game.

Another with all bases covered is Syndicated Metals, which has added phosphate to its copper, molybdenum, gold and rhenium projects.

Image Resources has unearthed an old drilling report that mentioned phosphate, while Uramet says it might have found a tenement too.

Some are even looking for phosphate under water although if I remember my geology correctly that's sensible because the seabed sits on phosphate and the continents are granite. Mind you, it wasn't my best subject.

Anyway, while the zinc explorer Union Resources is looking for phosphate off the coast of Namibia, its share price veers between one and two cents.

Other phosphate stocks are Heron Resources, Bonaparte Diamond Mines and Krucible Metals.

But remember, like uranium, it takes years to commission a phosphate mine.