Rio Tinto Plc plans to expand capacity across its mineral sands business to take capitalise on a strong outlook for the titanium dioxide (TiO2) industry, delegates at the TZMI Congress 2011 in Hong Kong were informed.
Jean Francoise Turgeon, managing director of the company’s iron and titanium arm, said that Rio Tinto has such a belief in the market that it is looking to invest $63m in bringing more capacity online in four of its projects.
“Demand for higher-grade feedstocks is growing at a significantly higher pace than the market can currently meet,” Turgeon explained. “There’s been little feedstock investment in the last decade,” he added.
The project by Rio Tinto, named TiO4 (“I apologise to the chemists in the audience,” Turgeon joked), will see the company increase nameplate capacity in its mineral...