CAPE TOWN (miningweekly.com) – Tormin, the West Coast-based mineral sands project of Mineral Commodities (MRC), is up and running, with the first product already shipped to China.

Speaking to an investor gathering at the Investing in African Mining Indaba, in Cape Town, on Wednesday, CEO Andrew Lashbrooke said the Tormin project was expected to inject more than R5-billion into the Western Cape economy over the next five years.

The Tormin mine, about 400 km north of Cape Town, had active beach deposits of heavy minerals, zircon, rutile, ilmenite and garnet. Zircon was primarily used to produce ceramics, used in roof tiles, while rutile was used in the production of welding rods and pigments.

“Mining has gone very well and has exceeded expectations so far. By the middle of December, we had a good stockpile of 60 000 t of heavy mineral ready to be processed. The project has also come in under budget at $14.5-million,” Lashbrooke said.

About 65 local jobs were created during the building phase of the mine last year, while 100 people would be employed during the life of the mine. Australian-based company MRC expected another 400 indirect jobs to be created from transport and other feeder services.

Over half of the people employed had never had a job before and were from the Vredendal area on the West Coast.

Lashbrooke said local employees had worked extremely well and had completed 140 000 working hours without injury.

“We’re confident that the project will inject more than R1-billion a year into the provincial economy for a period of five years, believed to be the life span of the mine,” said Lashbrooke.

“We’re very excited about the process. The first pilot product was shipped to China and was sold within less than a week, so there’s clearly market demand for the product.”

MRC had prospecting rights in the area within 1 km out to sea and testing was under way.

“Anecdotal tests have shown replenishment happens within a 24-hour cycle. We found a lovely cycle, where within 24 hours the sand is back and within three days the silicone disappears. Replenishment is keeping our operating costs down.

“We are extraordinarily lucky with this ‘purple sand’. Very easy and simple mining methods are able to produce the grades we need,” explained Lashbrooke.

Recent spring tides had had an extremely positive effect and strong wave action had helped to remove large proportions of the quartz and light heavies.

Tormin was continually exposed to the ocean’s forces, which had a natural jigging effect.

Lashbrooke told the breakfast briefing at the Mining Indaba that the current life span of the mine was five years, but he was confident that it could be extended for another five years.

The nonmagnetic material would be produced as a concentrate, comprising about 80% zircon and just under 12% rutile concentrate. It would be shipped to China in terms of an offtake agreement where it would be processed further to produce final zircon and rutile, which would be sold in the local market.

The ilmenite, which was primarily used in pigment, would be beneficiatd in South Africa.