Look what's just popped up on the net - interesting to note that "studies on the feasibility of the new design for its project will be ready by March next year" and so will APG's demo plant. Looks like BHP will be making a decision about a titanina smelter OR ERMS SR (or both) for Corridor Sands as early as 2nd Quarter next year.
Seems that BHP must have already been sneaking around in Mozambique.
Alan Cuddon is a BHP employee. "Alan Cuddon, metallurgical engineer (University of Cape Town, South Africa), joined QNI as General Manager in May 2003. Alan has been an employee of BHP Billiton since 1992, and prior to his appointment with QNI, held senior engineering and managerial positions in the aluminium processing industry at Mozal, Hillside Aluminium and Bayside Aluminium in Southern Africa. Alan was responsible for building, developing and managing casthouse operations at the Mozal plant in Mozambique. Alan holds a Masters in Engineering and is a member of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (USA)."
"Located 25 km north west of Townsville in Queensland, Australia, QNI Yabulu Refinery processes ore from New Caledonia, Indonesia and the Philippines to produce high quality nickel and cobalt products. Our products are used to manufacture stainless steel, speciality steels, alloys and chemicals. QNI Yabulu Refinery has an annual processing capacity of around 3.6 million wet tonnes of lateritic ore, and an annual production capacity of 32 000 tonnes of nickel and 2 000 tonnes of cobalt."
Mozambique: New Studies On Chibuto Heavy Sands
Angcia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
3 August 2007 Posted to the web 3 August 2007
Chibuto
Corridor Sands, the company that won the concession to exploit the titanium-bearing heavy sands of Chibuto, in the southern Mozambican province of Gaza, says that studies on the feasibility of the new design for its project will be ready by March next year. The initial design of the project included building a mineral port at Chongoene, on the Gaza coast, for the export of the ores, after they had been processed in Chibuto. But later it was found that it would be cheaper to process the ores by building the smelter in Beluluane, near the MOZAL aluminium smelter, and exporting the minerals through the port of Maputo.
The current plan is to undertake only initial processing of the mined ore at Chibuto. It will then be sent by truck and rail to Beluluane.
The director of the project, Alan Cuddon, told AIM on Wednesday that the advantage of shifting most of the processing to Beluluane is that it will be easier to obtain the electricity needed (about 120 Megawatts), and there is also a good mineral port at Maputo for exporting the ores.
The Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources, Abdul Razak Noormahomed, said that with this new move Corridor Sands will save about 50 per cent of the initially budgeted investment, estimated at one billion US dollars.
"Transport is easier. The product will be transported from Chibuto by road to Xinavane, which is about 120 kilometres from Maputo, and from there to Beluluane by rail", he said.
Razak said that by the end of 2008, Corridor Sands is set to present its final proposal to the government, and between 2011 and 2012 it will start effective operations.
The new studies follow the purchase of the company by BHP Billiton (which is also the major shareholder in MOZAL) in 2005.
In March 2008, Corridor Sands is to submit a report to the BHP Billiton board of directors for approval.
Relevant Links
Southern Africa Economy, Business and Finance Construction Industry and Infrastructure Mining Mozambique Sustainable Development Urban Issues and Habitation
BHP Billition now owns 90 per cent of the shares in Corridor Sands, and the remainder 10 per cent are held by the South African Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).
During the Corridor Sands construction phase, about 1,750 job will be created - 1,200 in Chibuto and the rest in Maputo, During its operational phase, there will be 475 jobs in Chibuto and 215 in Maputo, and a further 2,500 jobs are expected to be created indirectly.
Chibuto is believed to be the largest deposit of titanium bearing sands in the world, containing more than 300 million tonnes of ilmenite (iron titanium oxide). It is expected that the ore will be extracted at a rate of a million tonnes a year, and the mine will operate for more than a century.
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