furnaces from sulfatable slag tochlorinatable slag and partly as aresult of Exxaro increasing thequantity of coarse-grained(chlorinatable) material at its SouthAfrican smelters. From 1.0 M tonnes/yat the beginning of 2000, worldsulfatable slag capacity has been cutback to the present level of 660,000tonnes/y. With no net change in worldsulfatable slag capacity anticipatedover the next five years, there will bea persistent surplus of more than450,000 tonnes/y in this sector. Thismight be reduced if some of the majorsulfate-route pigment producers inChina and Europe could bepersuaded to use more slag and lessilmenite in their respective feedstockblends.

In his next series of charts, DrFisher examined the cash costs ofselected mineral sand operations. Pertonne of valuable heavy mineralrecovered, cash costs at Kenmare’sMoma (Mozambique) mine areestimated at $25. Comparable figuresare: $40 for the Kronos Tellnes(Norway) mine; $45 for Iluka’sWestern Australian mines; and $230for TRG’s mine in Sierra Leone. Pertonne of slag produced, cash costs atRBM’s Richards Bay (South Africa)smelter are estimated at $90.Comparable figures are: $120 for QITat Sorel (Canada); and $170 forExxaro at Saldanha Bay (SouthAfrica). Per tonne of synrutileproduced, cash costs are: $260 forIluka and $280 for Tiwest (both inWestern Australia). Cash costs forQIT’s chemically upgraded slag(known as UGS) are estimated ataround $205-210 per tonne.Reflecting the increased costs ofmining, energy and manpower, theselling prices of all six TiO2 feedstocktypes are expected to rise over thenext six years, more or less intandem. Per tonne of TiO2 content,the price of natural rutile is forecast torise from $640 to $815. Comparablefigures are: $545 to $720 forchlorinatable slag; $507 to $670 forsulfatable slag; $480 to $655 forsynrutile; $270 to $350 forchlorinatable ilmenite; and $240 to$320 for sulfatable ilmenite.

Dr Fisher concluded by highlightingthe key challenges that face the worldTiO2 industry. He echoed theconcerns of Dr Fritz Brenzikofer (theorganic pigments consultant, formerly

with Clariant), who warned the recentHamburg Conference that for allpigments, the ethos is becoming morelike a commodity business and lesslike a speciality chemical business. Dr Fisher also noted that the overallproduction cost structure of the worldTiO2 pigment industry is skewed,since DuPont – the largestmanufacturer, with a 20% globalmarket-share – has a substantiallylower average cash cost of productionthan any of its competitors. For thepast 20 years, most TiO2 pigmentsuppliers have earned relatively lowrates of return on their investment inTiO2 (usually lower than the cost ofcapital) and they have not been ableto sustain pigment price rises in orderto improve their profit margins. Theirdifficulties have been exacerbated bythe overhang of excess pigmentcapacity and by the increasedbargaining power of major customersin the paint, plastics and paperindustries. Dr Fisher said: “The TiO2pigment industry will continue to beplagued by low selling prices untilproducers shut down or improve theirhigh-cost plants. But plant shutdownsare costly, so most of the necessaryshutdowns probably will not happen!The global economic crisis placedunprecedented stress on the TiO2pigment industry in 2009. Some majorestablished producers are nowseriously questioning the value ofcontinued participation in thisindustry.”

For TiO2 feedstock producers, thekey criteria today are the same asthey have always been: a goodmineral deposit, with a resource life ofat least 20 years; mineral productsthat are of the right quality forcustomers (low in heavy metals,radioactivity, alkaline earths and otherunwanted impurities); valuable co-products (such as zircon and iron);decent infrastructure, water, gas andelectric power supplies (at low costand low risk of disruption) andfocused well-informed marketingskills. He said: “TiO2 pigments andfeedstocks are tough businesses.There are significant barriers to entry– large capital requirements, complextechnology and a changingcompetitive landscape. The marketleaders – DuPont (in pigments) andRio Tinto (in feedstocks) – havesimilar characteristics. They are large,well-capitalised, run very low-cost

operations, have mastered difficulttechnologies, can point to a longtrack-record in their respective sectorsand they have successful businessplans.” An aspiring entrant to thepigment or feedstock sector cannotafford to downplay the far-reachingimpact of these two industry-leaders.

Following Jim Fisher’spresentation, there were several otherinteresting papers with a globalperspective, notably on zircon (by MrMurray Lines of Stratum Resources)and on the commodity supercycle (byDr Alan Heap of Citi InvestmentResearch). In addition, there wereupdates on specific companies’mining projects (Bemax, Diatreme,Gunson, Iluka and MDL) and papersdiscussing mine rehabilitation andwater supply management. We shallbe reviewing these conference papersin a future issue of ‘Focus onPigments.’

Reg Adams

1) For those who were unable to attend the event, thefull set of 17 papers from the Mildura conferenceis available for sale. For details, please contact: MsDiana Lauzi, Informa/AJM, PO Box Q1439, SydneyQVB, New South Wales 1230, Australia. Tel: +61 29080 4313. Fax: +61 2 9290 2577. E-mail:diana.lauzi@informa.com.au. Website:http://www.informa.com.au/mineralsands

PLANTSBelgium: L’Oréal – hair colorants

As part of a corporate commitment toreduce its overall “carbon footprint” by50% in the ten years between 2005and 2015, L’Oréal recently started-upa biomethane plant at its Libramontsite (about 120 km south of Liège).Using a fermentation process, theplant converts about 54,000 tonnes/yof biomass residues supplied by localfarmers and food-processors intomethane gas. The methane isconverted into heat and electricity,providing 100% of the Libramont site’selectricity requirements and 80% of itsheat requirements. Surplus electricityis sold to the national power grid.Annual production of electricity fromthe new plant is estimated at 25,600MWh. Annual production of heat isestimated at 27,200 MWh. Thebiomethane plant, said to be the firstof its kind in Europe, was designedand engineered by Eneco (of

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Mechelen) and Bio Energie Europa(of Antwerp).

L’Oréal’s Libramont site is thecompany’s main European productionsite for hair colorants. It opened in1975 and nowadays employs 400people. The commissioning of thebiomass plant will bring about a CO2reduction of about 31,950 tonnes/y.

In addition to its “carbon footprint”goal, L’Oréal’s 10-year environmentalgoals include reducing by 50% its unitwater consumption (litres of water perkilo of finished product) and its unitwaste generation (kilos of waste perkilo of finished product).

SPC, Soap, Perfumery and Cosmetics, Nov 2009, 82(11), 8

Brazil, China & India: Ampacet –plastics masterbatch

Ampacet (headquartered in Tarrytown,NY) will open two new masterbatchplants later this year. During 3Q 2010,the company is expecting to commenceproduction of up to 9070 tonnes/y ofblack concentrates at its new plant atCamacari (Bahia province, Brazil).During 4Q 2010, Ampacet willcommission its new plant at Pune(Maharashtra province, India). Thisplant should be producing over 13,500tonnes/y of white and additiveconcentrates by 2013. The Indian plantwill be Ampacet’s third plant in Asia.

In May 2009, the company openedits first plant in China, at Shanghai-Minhang. Initially, this plant has 12employees, but it will be expanded aswarranted by market growth. Ampacetalso has a plant in Thailand, atPluakdaeng (near Rayong).Completing the quartet of plants inBRIC countries, Ampacet has a plantat Tver (150 km northwest ofMoscow).

Ampacet, one of the world’s largestproducers of plastic masterbatch, is aprivately held company, with annualglobal sales revenue of around $750M and a total workforce of about 1600people.

Plastics News, 23 Nov 2009, (Website:http://www.plasticsnews.com)

Canada: Canadian Wollastonite -wollastonite & diopside

Canadian Wollastonite hasannounced the postponement ofplans to build a pilot-scale plant in the

Seeley’s Bay district. The plant wasgoing to be designed to produce15,000 tonnes/y of wollastonite and10,000 tonnes/y of diopside. (See‘Focus on Pigments’, Aug 2009, 5).

Industrial Minerals, Dec 2009, (507), 74

China: Jiangsu Black Cat – carbonblack & nanoparticulate SiO2

On 16 November 2009, Jiangxi BlackCat Carbon Black Co started-up itsthird 40,000 tonnes/y production lineat the Wuhai plant (Inner Mongoliaprovince). The company is nowworking towards the installation of afourth line here, which will raise thecapacity of the Wuhai plant to 160,000tonnes/y during the second half of2010.

Besides Wuhai, Jiangxi Black Cathas three other carbon black plants –at Jingdezhen (Jiangxi province), atHancheng (Shaanxi province) and atChaoyang (Liaoning province). Whenthe fourth line at Wuhai comes on-stream, the company will have a totalcapacity of 420,000 tonnes/y. JiangxiBlack Cat claims a market share inthe Chinese carbon black industry ofabout 11%.

Also, on completion of the fourthline at Wuhai, the company will havea total power generation capacity of53.5 MW. It can generate 375 GWh ofelectricity a year and it intends to sell200 GWh of electricity in 2011.

Until now, Jiangxi Black Cat hasbeen a “one product company” but itrecently commissioned the first stageof a nanoparticulate silica plant atJingdezhen. Capacity here is currently1000 tonnes/y and this will rise to3000 tonnes/y within the next fewyears.

For full-year 2008, the companyreported net profit at only Yuan 2.89 Mon sales revenue of Yuan 1.775 bn.The costs of feedstocks (coal tar,anthracene oil and ethylene oil)increased by more than 20% during2008, while the company’s weighted-average selling price for carbon blackincreased by only 15.5%. Because of asharp drop in demand for carbon blackduring 4Q 2008, the company declareda net loss of Yuan 49 M in the lastquarter of the year, almost cancellingout all the profit accumulated during thefirst three quarters.

Demand from both domestic andexport customers picked up onwards

from March 2009. For the first ninemonths of the year, Jiangsu Black Catreported a net profit of Yuan 49.6 Mon sales revenues of Yuan 1.284 bn.

From May to October 2009, thecompany’s plants have been runningat full capacity. But now there is someconcern that the recent imposition ofvery high tariffs on Chinese tyresimported into the US might affectChinese tyre production and carbonblack demand. According toexecutives at Jiangsu Black Cat, thetotal cessation of Chinese tyre exportsto the US would cause a fall of 75,000tonnes/y in China’s carbon blackconsumption. The direct impact onJiangsu Black Cat would be a loss ofonly 8000 tonnes/y in carbon blacksales.

China Chemical Reporter, 26 Nov 2009, 20 (33), 25 &6 Dec 2009, 20 (34), 20

India: Golcha Associated – talc

Golcha Associated Group reportedtalc production at 234,274 tonnes forthe year ending March 2009. This wasan increase of nearly 50% comparedagainst the previous year’s figure ofaround 160,000 tonnes. GolchaAssociated supplies more than 90%of its output to the domestic marketand it has benefited from“phenomenal growth” in theconsumption of talc in the Indianplastics, paper and paint sectors,which respectively accounted for30%, 25% and 10% of the company’stalc sales in 2008/09.

Industrial Minerals, Nov 2009, 13

India: Saraf & Russian State PropertyManagement – TiO2

Serious disagreements have beenpublicly aired by both the Indian andRussian partners in a major titaniummetal and pigments project plannedfor Gopalpur (in the province ofOrissa). A memorandum ofunderstanding for this project wassigned with the Orissa Governmenttowards the end of 2008, confirmingplans to build: an ilmenite smelter witha capacity of 108,000 tonnes/y ofTiO2-rich slag; a 40,000 tonnes/ychloride-route TiO2 pigment plant; anda 10,000 tonnes/y titanium spongemetal plant. (See ‘Focus onPigments’, Mar 2009, 4).

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