Cristal Will Make Titanium Dioxide Raw Material

Cristal Global, which calls itself the world’s second-largest producer of the white pigment titanium dioxide, has signed an agreement with the technology firm Outotec to build an ilmenite smelting plant in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. The plant, set to be completed by the end of 2013, will be able to process 800,000 metric tons per year of ilmenite ore into TiO₂ slag and pig iron. The slag will be used at Cristal’s nearby TiO₂ plant. Cristal mines ilmenite in Australia and Brazil. TiO₂ producers have been looking to lock up sources of increasingly scarce titanium dioxide feedstock. In September, TiO₂ maker Tronox said it will merge with a unit of South Africa’s Exxaro that mines ilmenite and other feedstocks (C&EN, Oct. 3, page 10).