South African ilmenite used to manufacture titanium dioxide pigment in KwaZulu-Natal has received a major value boost with the signing of an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the long-awaited sulphuric acid titanium dioxide project that has been championed over many years by Nyanza Light Metals CEO Donovan Chimhandamba.

The project highlights the huge opportunity for Africa and South Africa to move up the value curve by establishing advanced material production companies that make competitive use of locally mined materials.

The $750-million required for the far- reaching titanium dioxide (TiO2) project is no small change and has been awaiting the high-level EPC contract signing with East China Engineering Science and Technology Company (ECEC), a subsidiary of China National Chemical Engineering Group Company.

The signing was essential to give the many finance houses committed to funding the 80 000 t/y project the confidence needed.

This solace stems from ECEC having built 31 plants in China over 60 years, as well as the EPC contract signed being followed by an ongoing operational upkeep agreement.

The important backdrop to all this is that South Africa’s ilmenite, a heavy mineral sands derivative, sells at around $300/t on export markets, whereas using it to manufacture TiO2 pigment at the Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone (RBIDZ) will enable it to potentially fetch a ten-times-higher $3 000/t.

The first thing the R14-billion Nyanza project is seeking to achieve is to move Africa’s abundant raw materials up the value curve, Chimhandamba emphasised to Engineering News & Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview earlier this year.

The 80 000 t/y of TiO2 pigment is probably around half of Africa’s buying capacity and just over 1% in terms of the global market.

TiO2 is widely used in coatings, cosmetics, medicine, electronics and environmental protection. However, at present, there is not a single TiO2 factory in operation in Africa, China Chemical Industry News journalists Li Dongzhou and Wang Peng have noted in their article sent to Engineering News & Mining Weekly.

At October’s third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing, the EPC contract signing breakthrough was finally achieved.

With shared technology and cooperation, Nyanza will produce TiO2 pigment in South Africa, demonstrating how the Belt and Road Initiative is benefiting development in Africa through cooperation with China, Dongzhou and Peng emphasised.

Nyanza will be sourcing its ilmenite from within South Africa and Engineering News & Mining Weekly can report manufacturing costs could be lowered further if a way is found to blend in the 45-million tons of stockpiled ilmenite-containing slag at Evraz, the former Highveld Steel and Vanadium, in eMalahleni, Mpumalanga. The blending in could conceivably be brought about with higher-content ilmenite, or synthetic rutile from Richards Bay Minerals.

Self-generation of 12 MW of solar power supported by battery storage is planned, augmented by 8 MW of cogenerated electricity from the sulphuric acid plant.

Already commissioned is a R200-million product testing and development centre that will be used to train over 200 young graduates, operators and artisans, who will eventually be transferred to the main plant, which will have more than 850 employees at full operation.

Offtake agreements for more than 60% of the 80 000 t/y capacity have already been signed and while the main plant is being built, the testing and development will be used to train employees, who will be brought in early for upskilling.

Africa Finance Corporation of Nigeria and African Export-Import Bank of Egypt are co-funders of the project’s feasibility phase, and a third multilateral international financial institution is going through concluding the agreements. Senior debt is already oversubscribed, equity players have expressed interest, and financial close is likely in the second quarter of 2024.

RBIDZ site preparation works will commence in the first quarter of next year, where activities such as site clearing, bulk earthworks and piling are scheduled to happen, prior to the major plant construction works being done by the EPC contractor in the third quarter of 2024.

Arkein Industrial Holdings is the founding shareholder of Nyanza with 70%, while DBF Capital holds the remaining 30%. At financial close, arrangements with multilateral banks to allow for the conversion of investments into equity or debt are already in place.

As noted by China Chemical Industry News journalists Dongzhou and Peng, Chimhandamba began contemplating this project 16 years ago.

This followed his learning about titanium as a 28-year-old manufacturing operations GM for Vesuvius International, which manufactured and supplied refractory bricks to Evraz. In its steelmaking process, Evraz was generating a waste slag that contained 30% titanium dioxide, which presented a recovery opportunity and the production of a value- add titanium product.

Later, as Rare Metals Industries chairperson, Chimhandamba was involved with the Kroll process, used in producing titanium and zirconium sponge. However, an intended related project did not materialise, owing mainly to its energy intensity at a time of growing energy scarcity.

This disappointing experience, Dongzhou and Peng report, stimulated Chimhandamba’s continued pursuit of TiO2, resulting in the founding of Nyanza in 2011.

“Regrettably, we took long to identify and engage with ECEC, now our Chinese partner. If we had set out with this engagement earlier, this project would have been complete by now,” Chimhandamba is quoted by Dongzhou and Peng as saying.