It has taken two years for Rio Tinto Plc to construct and open a new $240m. deepwater port in Ehoala, Madagascar, but the significance of the strategic hub could be far reaching.
Firstly, Rio Tinto controls the port and secondly it only utilises a fraction of its capability, occupying the port only one week in every four.
Ehoala, which opened last month, will handle all of the 750,000 tpa ilmenite mined from Fort Dauphin by Rio subsidiary, QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) and ship it to QIT Fer et Titan Inc. TiO2 slag production facility in Quebec, Canada. Ultimately, the ilmenite will produce 475,000 tpa of chlorinatable ilmenite slag (91% TiO2).
With two 35,000 tonne Panamaxes shipping the ilmenite to Canada every month, the port will be one...