PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mineral sands miner Iluka has reported higher production and sales volumes for the year ended December, compared with 2014, as the company reactivated a synthetic rutile kiln, in Western Australia, in April last year.

Production of zircon, rutile and synthetic rutile reached a combined 690 000 t during the year, compared with the 535 000 t delivered in the previous year.

Zircon production reached 117 300 t during the three months ended December, up 8.6% on the previous quarter, while rutile production was up 28.1% to 45 100 t.

Synthetic rutile production decreased by 4.2%, compared with the September quarter, with Iluka producing only 52 600 t during the three months to December.

Ilmenite production was up 22.5%, to 149 200 t, bringing total mineral sands production for the December quarter to 364 200, a 13.8% increase on the September quarter.

Iluka reported on Thursday that the Jacinth-Ambrosia mining and concentration operation continued at full capacity, while both the Hamilton mineral separation plant, in Victoria, and the Narngulu mineral separation plant, in Western Australia, were idled over the Christmas period, and would restart concentrate processing in January and February respectively.

Mining at the Tutunup South operation, in Western Australia, restarted in March last year, as an ilmenite feed source for synthetic rutile kiln 2. The kiln was reactivated in April last year, and produced 165 000 t of synthetic rutile to the end of 2015.

Meanwhile, mining at the Murray basin operation was completed in April, following the end of the economic life of the deposits. Rehabilitation work has started, and Murray basin rutile and zircon production would be derived from the progressive drawdown and processing of heavy mineral concentrate stocks, before the next planned mine development at Balranald, in New South Wales.

Meanwhile, Iluka on Thursday reported total mineral sands sales volume for the full-year ended December of 651 000 t, up 6% on the 2014 sales, generating revenues of A$820-million, compared with the A$725-million achieved in 2014.

This figure included ilmenite and by-product revenues.

Zircon, rutile and synthetic rutile sales revenues were up 17% on 2014, to A$740-million, as the per-tonne revenue increased by 10%, to A$1 136/t, despite lower weighted average received US dollar prices and a higher proportion of standard grade zircon and zircon-in-concentrate sales.