Name and location
Tormin mineral sands project, Northern Cape, South Africa.

Client
Mineral Commodities (MRC).

Project description
A definitive feasibility study (DFS) commissioned by MRC has demonstrated that Tormin can produce an enriched concentrate containing predominately zircon and rutile.

The base case derived from the DFS provides for hydraulic mining and the primary concentration of the deposit through spiral plants on the beach. Thereafter, the concentrate will be transferred to a secondary concentration plant (SCP), where it will be further upgraded by spirals, wet magnetic separation and screens before being bagged before shipment to destination markets.

The engineering design provides for primary beach concentration of 1.2-million tonnes a year, producing about 48 000 t of zircon/rutile concentrate grading up to 80% zircon and 10% rutile.

The proposed Phase 2 project provides for further processing through the construction of a dry mineral separation plant to produce various magnetic concentrates, including up to 125 000 t/y of ilmenite and 100 000 t/y of garnet.

Value
$16-million.

Duration
Mining started in October 2013.

Latest developments
MRC has shipped its first high-grade zircon/rutile from its Tormin operations to its offtake partner, Wogen Pacific, and expects to ship 1 800 t this month, before ramping up towards 4 000 t/m during February.

Commissioning of the beach mining and processing infrastructure started in October 2013. The 1.2-million-tonne-a-year processing plant is operating to plan, and grade reconciliation provides confidence of an annualised production rate of 48 000 t of zircon/rutile concentrate.

Since commissioning started, a 60 000 t high-grade heavy mineral stockpile has been created, providing a six-week buffer for the SCP.

MRC has also received several proposals for the ilmenite to be produced from Tormin. The miner is in advanced negotiations with two of these parties and therefore hopes to finalise an offtake agreement for 100% of the ilmenite early 2014. The ilmenite concentrate is being stockpiled until an offtake agreement is finalised and the additional plant required to produce this product is acquired and installed. The garnet will be sold to Blastrite and concentrate produced to date has also been stockpiled, pending the start of the delivery of this product in February under the terms of that agreement.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
RSV Misym Engineering Services trading as K’Enyuka (DFS).

On budget and on time?
The project was commissioned on time and on budget.

Contact details for project information
MRC CEO Andrew Lashbrooke, tel +27 21 417 1700, fax +27 21 425 2341 or
email alashbrooke@mineralcommodities.com.
K’Enyuka, tel +27 11 498 6000, fax +27 11 498 6060 or email mail@kenyuka.com.