looks like the pilot plant is running now and it is just a matter of time as the majors come fwd and get thier samples and then come back hopefully to say they want more!
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Canadian titanium miner eyes U.S. pigment market
Last Updated: February 21, 2002 06:27 PM ET
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By Lesley Wroughton
TORONTO, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Two years ago, the only thing George Elliot knew about titanium was that his artificial hip was made of it.
Now the corporate lawyer is chairman, president and chief executive of Titanium Corp. Inc. TIC.V, which plans to recover titanium from sand bars in the Shubenacadie River on Canada's Atlantic coast, right on the doorstep some of the world's biggest users of titanium feedstock.
Elliot and geologists from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, launched a pilot test plant on Thursday to confirm the economic feasibility of producing high-grade titanium dioxide feestock from heavy minerals in the river and Cobequid Bay, known for the world's highest tides.
The tides have deposited black titanium-laced sands on the floor of the river over millions of years and in low tide more than 10 kilometres (6 miles) of mineralized sandbanks are exposed.
Titanium was first discovered in the river in 1972 by geologists looking for copper, Elliot said, adding that at the time there was no system to extract it from the wild river, better known for its white-water rafting.
Produced mainly in Africa and Australia, titanium feedstock is used for the manufacture of pigment in paper, plastics and paints. Large producers, such as DuPont DD.N and Kerr-McGee Corp. KMG.N, are mostly located in Canada's southern neighbor the United States.
Titanium is also used in the aircraft and space industries, the manufacture of chemical equipment, and for medical pacemaker components.
"This is totally new for North America and what's unique about it is that it is going to be the world's lowest-cost producer of feedstock for the pigment industry," Elliot said, adding that DuPont, the largest U.S. chemical company, has already expressed interest to test the titanium.
The pilot plant will test about 30 tonnes of river bed sand over the next six months. Sand will be drawn with a suction dredge and processed on land before 95 percent of the sand is returned to the water.
"The world's largest pigment producers will be able to take away samples of our titanium feedstock concentrates to be tested in their pigment plants," he added.
The company hopes it can begin mining in 2004. It holds the rights to about 70 square kilometres (28 sq. miles) of land on the river with probable reserves of about 330 million tonnes of sand. Elliot estimated the project's value is about C$260 million ($165 million) and could provide a mine life of over 15 years.
The sands in the river contain 1.94 percent titanium-bearing heavy minerals, zircon, garnet, rutile, leucoxene and ilmenite.
Elliot said there would be little harm to the environment, mostly because the sand is returned to the river.
The Nova Scotia government is keen to see new jobs created from the project after the closure of some area coal mines.
"We believe the work being done at this plant has the potential to provide new revenues and jobs for Nova Scotians," said Ernest Fage, the province's minister for natural resources, during a ceremony to launch the pilot plant on Thursday.
($1=$1.59 Canadian)
(Reuters Toronto newsroom +416-941-8101, toronto.newsroom@reuters.com)
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