This paper is devoted to the fundamentals of natural phosphate rock dissolution under conditions close to those in the industry of the wet-process phosphoric acid production. The dissolution kinetics and mechanism of single crystals of natural fluorapatite at micro- and nanolevels have been studied for the first time. Methods of optical and scanning electron microscopy and Auger electron and IR reflection spectroscopy were used for the investigations. As a result, effects of dislocation acceleration of dissolution rate (increasing to 1.6 times) and random fluctuations of crystal size with parameter 1.15 +/- 0.05 mu m were discovered. Both phenomena have been described as a micromechanism of dissolution. A new system of five chemical equations for the acidic dissolution of fluorapatite has also been proposed and described as a nanomechanism of dissolution. The obtained results are useful for elaboration of new technological and ecological principles of wet-process phosphoric acid production.