Mar. 5, 2011 - South Africa s heavy minerals major Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) will begin retreating a large stockpile of zircon-rich tailings from April at a time of rising prices.
The Rio Tinto-managed operation, in which BHP Billiton has a 37% stake, has built up the heavy mineral tailings over 35 years of mineral sands mining.
RBM's main product is titanium dioxide slag, which it produces at a rate of just over one million tons a year for use as pigment by the pigment industry.
The price of zircon has risen from $800/t last year to $1,200/t currently, with some sales recently touching $1,500/t, and with RBM currently selling rising volumes of the product into China.
RBM, headed by new MD Dr Elaine Dorward-King, is also reviewing the feasibility of its Zulti South mining operation, for which a new-order mining right application has been submitted to the Department of Mineral Resources.
RBM CFO Bruce Beath said that the company has invested R1-billion in the new 300 t/h treatment plant.
Product from the new treatment plant, which will also recover rutile and ilmenite as well as zircon, will represent the company s lowest-cost production.
RBM, which in 2009 concluded a full 26% black economic empowerment transaction, currently processes 200,000 t/d of heavy mineral sands to obtain 8,000 t/d of concentrate.
Standard grades of rutile and zircon are recovered as final product, with some zircon roasted in an upgrading process.
The ilmenite is fed into a 5,000 t/d smelter to produce 3,000 t/d of titanium dioxide slag and 1 500 t/d of graphite spheroidal ductile iron, commonly known as pig iron.
Material from Zulti South is expected to maintain RBM s production level at full capacity until 2032 and then be supplemented until 2040, when mining is set to end and only toll-smelting continue.
A move to Zulti South would result in the R6-billion-a-year turnover RBM, which currently employs 1,800 permanent employees and 2,000 contractors, increasing its jobs numbers.
Demand is currently strong for its products, which are sold forward for the next year to three years.
Virtually everything that has colourant from tooth paste to paint contains titanium product, which is expected to be supply-constrained going forward.
The Rio Tinto-managed operation, in which BHP Billiton has a 37% stake, has built up the heavy mineral tailings over 35 years of mineral sands mining.
RBM's main product is titanium dioxide slag, which it produces at a rate of just over one million tons a year for use as pigment by the pigment industry.
The price of zircon has risen from $800/t last year to $1,200/t currently, with some sales recently touching $1,500/t, and with RBM currently selling rising volumes of the product into China.
RBM, headed by new MD Dr Elaine Dorward-King, is also reviewing the feasibility of its Zulti South mining operation, for which a new-order mining right application has been submitted to the Department of Mineral Resources.
RBM CFO Bruce Beath said that the company has invested R1-billion in the new 300 t/h treatment plant.
Product from the new treatment plant, which will also recover rutile and ilmenite as well as zircon, will represent the company s lowest-cost production.
RBM, which in 2009 concluded a full 26% black economic empowerment transaction, currently processes 200,000 t/d of heavy mineral sands to obtain 8,000 t/d of concentrate.
Standard grades of rutile and zircon are recovered as final product, with some zircon roasted in an upgrading process.
The ilmenite is fed into a 5,000 t/d smelter to produce 3,000 t/d of titanium dioxide slag and 1 500 t/d of graphite spheroidal ductile iron, commonly known as pig iron.
Material from Zulti South is expected to maintain RBM s production level at full capacity until 2032 and then be supplemented until 2040, when mining is set to end and only toll-smelting continue.
A move to Zulti South would result in the R6-billion-a-year turnover RBM, which currently employs 1,800 permanent employees and 2,000 contractors, increasing its jobs numbers.
Demand is currently strong for its products, which are sold forward for the next year to three years.
Virtually everything that has colourant from tooth paste to paint contains titanium product, which is expected to be supply-constrained going forward.
