South Africa

South Africa is the second largest producer of titanium-bearing minerals in the world after Australia, accounting for about 22 percent of 6,1 Mt global production. In South Africa, titanium economic minerals, ilmenite and rutile, are produced from the extensive beach placer deposits located along the eastern, southern and northeastern coasts and deposits along the west coast, north of Cape Town. Titanium minerals are recovered at three major mines namely, Richard’s Bay Minerals’ Tisand (Pty) Ltd and Exxaro’s Hillendale and Namakwa Sands mines.

Richards Bay Minerals (RBM), situated along the Indian Ocean coastline in northern KwaZulu-Natal at Richards Bay, is a leading producer of titania slag, high purity pig iron and rutile in South Africa. Richards Bay Minerals is the trading name for two registered companies, Tisand (Pty) Ltd and Richards Bay Iron and Titanium (Pty) Ltd (RBIT). Tisand is responsible for the dune mining and mineral separation operations, and RBIT the smelting and beneficiation process. The company is jointly owned by Rio Tinto plc and BHP Billiton, and is one of the largest single mining operations in South Africa.

Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) is the largest titanium slag producer in the world with annual productions of about 1 Mt, and mining reserves estimated to last around 20 years at current production rates.

Namakwa Sands, formerly owned by Anglo American but acquired by Exxaro in 2007, is another major player in the production of titanium slag. The Brand se Baai mine and Saldanha Bay smelter facility produces about 250 kt of titanium slag per annum as well as pig iron and rutile from reserves of about 500 Mt. Another Exxaro subsidiary, KZN Minerals, operates the Hillendale mine and smelter near the town of Empangeni in Kwazulu-Natal. Mineral Resource Commodities (MRC), which is an Australian listed company, is still awaiting the approval from government for the mining rights of titanium deposits of Xolobeni Mineral Sands Project on the Pondoland coast in the Eastern Cape. MRC entered into a BEE agreement with the community-based Xolobeni Empowerment Company (Xolco), which will pay approximately R126 million for a 26 percent ownership. The project is expected to have a mine life of 22 years and to produce 250 kt of ilmenite and 19 kt of rutile per annum from its reserves. The Tormin project by MRC, which is about 400-km from Cape Town, is producing 49 kt per annum of high quality enriched non-magnetic concentrate containing predominantly zircon and rutile.