Business
Kenya’s First Titanium Export Puts It Among Mining The Big Leagues
After years of in-fighting Kenya finally exported the first batch of titanium in February. This signaled the changing fate of a country, which until recently, had no minerals to boost of but has been propelled into the exploration lime light by recent discoveries of oil deposits.
The East Africa’s largest economic has now entered the mineral exportation business with a first batch of titanium feedstocks; 25,000 tons of ilmenite, a weak magnetic titanium-iron oxide, was exported to China in mid February. “The mining sector is the fourth largest exporter in Kenya after Tea, Horticulture and Tourism. We hope to transition to the leading exporter in the coming few years,” said Joe Schwarz, the General Manager of Base Titanium Limited in a media tour of the facility in Mombasa that AFKInsider attended.
He added that price of Titanium ore is presently depressed owing to an economic slowdown in Europe as well as declining demand from China-the largest consumer of minerals in the world. Located in Kwale in the coastal region of Kenya, the $305 million-worth Base Titanium’s mineral sands plant becomes the country’s first large-scale mining company to commercially export minerals. Any minerals.
Currently, Base Titanium – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Australian-listed resources company, Base Resources Limited, is producing two types of titanium feed stocks – rutile and ilmenite.
Base Titanium
Construction at Base Titanium began in the third quarter of 2011 following an enhanced definitive feasibility study with production beginning by fourth quarter of 2013. Annual production is projected to be 330,000 tons of ilmenite, 80,000 tons of rutile and 40,000 tons of zircon.
The Titanium plant in Kwale is expected to be one of the top producers of ilmenite and rutile in the world, with production amounting to nearly ten percent and 14 percent of the global supply of these minerals respectively. Available statistics indicate that it is suitably positioned to leverage on a sustained opportunity in the mineral sands market, and is expected to generate $1billion in revenues over its lifetime of 13 years.
Titanium is presently attracting a price of $180 per ton in the international market. “This is the biggest single investment by Australia in Kenya, sending a message to the world to take advantage of a mining boom in Africa,” said Geoff Tooth, Australian High Commissioner to Kenya at the media tour in Mombasa.
