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Financial review | Business operations review | Overview of group mineral sands |

Mineral sands review

Sipho Nkosi


The mineral sands technology expertise acquired with the Namakwa Sands transaction has assisted in the profitable turnaround of the KZN operation. The three operations (Australia Sands, KZN Sands and Namakwa Sands) now boast a complementary set of products and technologies, with a group consolidated marketing strategy other than for pigment, which is marketed by Tronox, Exxaro’s partner in the Tiwest joint venture.

Despite growing titanium dioxide pigment demand from developing countries, declining GDP increases in developed economies, compounded by the global economic crisis, resulted in lower demand and only marginal price increases in 2008. Demand for feedstocks, zircon and low manganese pig iron (LMPI) remained strong in 2008 as evidenced by higher prices. Prices in 2009 for feedstocks, LMPI and zircon will remain challenging and are expected to move sideways.

KZN Sands
KZN Sands reported lower production as a result of the Furnace 2 water ingress incident at the end of February 2008, with only Furnace 1 being operational for the remainder of the year. Continuous improvement initiatives are impacting positively on production, with the Furnace 2 start up in early December 2008 ramping up according to plan.

Titanium slag produced at 113kt was 63kt lower than the comparable period in 2007. Furnace 1 performed well by producing more than 95kt of slag, equivalent to 87% of cold feed capacity. Low manganese pig iron production was in line with the decreased slag throughput while ilmenite production was aligned with lower smelter feed requirements at 138kt lower than the corresponding period in 2007.

Australia Sands
Record synthetic rutile production was achieved in 2008 resulting from stable operating conditions following the kiln shut in 2007. Although mineral production was lower as a result of dredging operations moving through lower ore grade areas, successful business improvement initiatives to increase yield and recoveries partially offset the negative variances. The 2009 mine plan indicates a higher grade than 2008 which should positively impact on mineral production in the new year.

Pigment production was substantially lower than the comparative period in 2007 as a result of maintenance related issues, an emergency shut at one of the critical raw material suppliers, the rebuild of all four chlorinators and interruptions in gas supply in the first quarter of 2008. Several initiatives have been implemented to improve the performance of the pigment plant and, in December 2008, pigment production improved to pre-2008 levels. A stronger pigment production performance is expected in 2009.

Namakwa Sands
Exxaro acquired effective ownership of Namakwa Sands on 1 October 2008 for an adjusted consideration of R2 783 million. The breakdown of the acquisition price is detailed in the financial review.

Annual records were achieved for zircon, titanium slag and pig iron production. The record zircon production was attributable to higher grades and improved plant efficiencies. Record smelter production resulted from Furnace 2 operating on full power of 35MW following the de-bottlenecking of process difficulties which increased slag and iron tapped despite power cutbacks in the first quarter of 2008.

Efficiency improvements at the smelter operations include annual records reported for the chlorinatable (CP) slag ratio at 84,5% compared to a previous best of 82,5%, and iron recovery at 91,3% compared to the previous record of 90,3%.

Prospects
At Namakwa Sands the optimisation of mine planning and scheduling in 2009 is receiving priority to ensure optimal matching of current technology and driving integrated business improvement initiatives. The containment of unit costs at all operations will be embarked on, with identified savings initiatives aimed at realising profitable contributions from all three business operations.

Increased production volumes from all mineral sands operations and a full 12 months’ contribution from Namakwa Sands, together with the local and Australian currencies remaining at their present weaker levels, should benefit this business in 2009 if market demand and prices remain at current stable levels.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
  • Maintain position among leading global suppliers of titanium dioxide feedstock and zircon
  • Downstream value addition
  • Increase share in world chloride pigment production

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