R4.5 billion titanium plant deal sealed

Mountains of waste will turn to fountains of wealth after Nyanza Light Metals in KwaZulu-Natal and New Zealand company Avertana officially sealed their technology partnership in ink, Zululand Observer reports.

The deal will culminate in construction of a R4.5 billion titanium dioxide pigment production factory next year in the Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone’s (RBIDZ) Phase 1F site in Alton North.

It will extract titanium from 45 million tons of waste slag, stockpiled by Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium at its Witbank operations since 1965, to produce titanium dioxide pigment used in various products such as paint, toothpaste and food colourants.

The massive piles of steel slag, that have been dumped for more than 45 years in a bushveld complex as feedstock, equates to 200 years of project life.

South Africa consumes around 35 000 tons per annum (tpa) of the pigment, mainly in paint manufacturing.

Sod turning event

The country also has the second-largest titanium reserves in the world and produces about 19.5% of global titanium slag, according to the department of trade and industry.

For this reason, the investors eagerly signed up to tap into the market that is not only lucrative, but also environmentally friendly.

“Nyanza aims to build a complex that would produce 100 000 tpa of titanium dioxide pigment, which will be equally split into what we call a sulphate pigment and chloride pigment,” Nyanza Light Metals CEO Donovan Chimhandamba said at the signing ceremony.

“We plan to implement the project in three phases. The first phase will commence with the construction of a 50 000 tpa plant in 2018, which should be in production by the end of 2019 or beginning 2020. This will be followed by the second phase, which will see the Avertana front-end plant come into production by 2021 – all for a combined R4 billion. The third phase will then focus on beneficiation capacity produced by Richards Bay Minerals.”

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About 550 permanent jobs and 1 200 indirect jobs are anticipated when the plant is fully operational, with 800 being created during construction.

The overall manufacturing process will be a world first, largely because conventional processes use feed stocks such as rutile and ilmenite, which have titanium content ranging from 50% to 96%, while Nyanza’s feed stock has a titanium dioxide pigment content of 32% or less.

Chimhandamba said a number of plus points came into play for the investors to pick ‘the Bay’, particularly being the closest port city from its Witbank operations, 120km east of Johannesburg.

“Acid is the biggest cost driver in our business and locating it far from the necessary sources is expensive and can make the business not viable. We use a lot of sulphuric acid, so with Foskor in Richards Bay, it was an easy decision. Another important reason is the Port of Richards Bay and the real infrastructure that allows easy access for the exporting of final product and the rail network that will bring in waste slag from Witbank.”

Happy to sign up was NZ High Commissioner Mike Burrell with MEC Sihle Zikalala and Avertana Director Sherif Ibrahim

“With Richards Bay being a special economic zone, we have also received a lot of government support for the project, including incentives such as an investment allowance of R900 million and a tax allowance.

KZN MEC for economic development, tourism and environmental affairs,Sihle Zikalala described the project as “historic” and “a major boost for the province”. The collective efforts to bring Nyanza Light Metals as an industrial tenant in the RBIDZ would boost socioeconomic advancement in surrounding communities.

“Despite our country being rich in natural resources, we need collective investment in development to adequately seize the vast opportunities in this sector.”

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– Caxton News Service

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