New titanium processing plant headed for South Africa

5th March 2021

By: Darren Parker

Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

     

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UK minerals technology company Fodere Titanium is taking substantial steps towards the commercialisation of a pilot project in South Africa, through which it expects to commission a small industrial process plant in the fourth quarter of this year.

A larger plant will be developed thereafter to become a full-scale industrial production facility.

The plant will be built in Emalahleni, Mpumalanga. It will produce titanium dioxide and vanadium pentoxide, with alumina oxide and magnesium sulphate as by-products.

The plant will use Fodere Titanium’s proprietary process for extracting titanium from steel slag, as well as for refining titanium and other industrial minerals and chemicals with a lower carbon footprint than alternative processes.

The company claims that the overall manufacturing process will be a world first, largely because conventional processes use feed stocks, such as rutile and ilmenite, which have a titanium content of between 50% and 70%. The feedstock used in the Fodere Titanium plant will have titanium content of less than 32%.

The company says on its website that the reason for its choosing South Africa was the country’s significant advantages from a commercial perspective. These advantages include the large quantities of available feedstock, which, in turn, negates the need for the company to develop or become involved in high-risk mining operations.

The facility will be located in an industrial park, which has the necessary transportation and energy infrastructure already in place.

Fodere Titanium believes that the project will benefit from being able to produce a high-value product with relatively low operating costs.

“The multiple-mineral business case with shared production costs offers an attractive revenue-to-cost ratio for titanium, along with multiple expansion opportunities,” the company’s website states.

Processing Technology

The Fodere Titanium process was developed to treat low-grade and complex titanium- bearing feedstock, particularly where existing methods are not suitable, to produce ultra-pure high-grade synthetic rutile.

The objective behind the development of the proprietary process was to design a sustainable technology capable of extracting a basket of compounds, primarily titanium dioxide and vanadium pentoxide, with near zero waste, thereby providing notable economic and environmental benefits.

Through some minor modifications, the process has successfully been applied to a range of feedstocks, including titanomagnetite concentrate, roast- calcine titanomagnetite tailings and hard-rock ilmenite, as well as complex titania slag, such as the slag produced by Emalahleni-based, Russian-owned Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium.

Alternative existing methods of upgrading titanium-bearing minerals are either not suitable for treating titanium dioxide slag or are not capable of recovering titanium and vanadium oxides. The complex mineralogy and varied distribution of vanadium ions in titanium oxide slag material affects the recovery of vanadium.

Existing processes essentially use reduction in a high-temperature kiln followed by acid leaching. Fodere Titanium’s process conducts the same reduction but at much lower temperatures than many of the current technologies used to treat titanium- bearing minerals.

These existing processes also require additional complex and expensive steps to recover other metals, whereas Fodere Titanium’s method does so by sequential precipitation from the leaching. The company suggests that the cost savings gained through using its proprietary process are significant enough to treat material that is currently regarded as untreatable, owing to economic reasons.

Added Investment

Aim-listed mineral resources company Jangada, which is primarily focused on developing two mining projects in Brazil – the Pitombeiras vanadium, titanium and iron project, as well as the Pedra Branca platinum, palladium and nickel project – announced in January that it had invested £465 000 in Fodere Titanium. The strategic investment represents about 3.6% of Fodere Titanium’s current capitalisation.

This investment, along with the development of the Fodere Titanium process plant in South Africa, comes on the back of steady growth in the market for titanium dioxide, which geological news and information portal Geology.com manager and publisher Hobart King says accounts for the bulk of titanium market demand.

According to market research firm Research and Markets, the global titanium dioxide market is predicted to progress at a compound annual growth rate of 4.5% from 2020 to 2030.
The key factor fuelling the advancement of the market is the mushrooming demand for titanium dioxide on account of the growing use of pigments in the coatings industry.

“There can be no doubt that the vanadium, titanium and iron space is a critical area for future development. The evolution of green technologies continually points to the importance of these materials going forward,” Jangada executive chairperson Brian McMaster said in a statement issued to shareholders in January.

He added that Jangada was fortunate to be in this space and that its involvement with Fodere Titanium at this juncture was another step in the right direction.

“As we develop our own assets and assist with the development of Fodere Titanium's processes, Jangada continues to illustrate that it is developing into a strategic player in this space.”

Jangada's investment in Fodere Titanium not only provides access to forward-thinking experts, technology and waste improvement processes but is also consistent with its approach to developing vanadium, titanium and iron resources in a substantiable and environment-friendly way.

Jangada expects the investment to be commercially beneficial.

Edited by Nadine James
Features Deputy Editor

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