Plenty of TiO2 feedstock to talk about at Miami & Melbourne
- Book ID
- 104369998
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2003
- Weight
- 62 KB
- Volume
- 2003
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0969-6210
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
While profitability in many other sectors of the mining and metals industry has been lacklustre in recent years, the TiO 2 feedstock sector continues to hold a special allure for investors. Growth in demand from the major customers -the TiO 2 pigment manufacturers -is healthy, there are no serious threats of substitution or recycling to disrupt the pigment industry's appetite for more and more raw materials. The profit margins enjoyed by Rio Tinto and some of the other major TiO 2 feedstock suppliers look very attractive to outsiders and they have inspired a number of new investors to begin developing titanium mineral resources and mineral upgrading technologies so as to join the party. Mining and pigment industry conferences provide ideal opportunities for the existing and aspiring TiO 2 feedstock producers to present their projects. Iluka (Australia and the US), Kerala Minerals & Metals (India), Murray Basin Titanium (Australia), Rio Tinto (Canada, South Africa and Madagascar), Southern Mining (Mozambique), Tiomin (Kenya) and VV Mineral (India) have all taken advantage of these opportunities at recent conferences in Padua, Montreal and Paris. Similar opportunities were afforded earlier this year by the Intertech Conference in Miami (3-5 Feb 2003) and by the Australian Journal of Mining Conference in Melbourne (24-25 Mar 2003).
In a discussion of raw materials for making TiO 2 pigment, the focus always tends to be on the titaniferous raw material. This is hardly surprising