Hi Sandboy,
I always enjoy reading your posts it is evident that you are very familiar with the Ti Feedstock / pigment industry.
Presumably like you - I invested in TNG as I thought that it was going to be disruptive to the Ti feedstock industry given that rutile and ilmenite deposits of scale in stable jurisdictions are becoming hard to find. TIVAN should be able to unlock otherwise worthless deposits like Mt. Peak. The low iron content of the proposed TIVAN Ti feedstock would have made GREAT pigment. If it worked.
Unfortunately I feel like I was sold a pup by previous management. The messaging from the company previously was that TIVAN would produce a form of synthetic rutile that could be feed directly into a Sulphate Pigment plant. As TNG moved to build their own capital intensive pigment plant I grew suspicious, especially so when I discussed this with Paul Burton and he indicated that they were going to build a Sulphate Pigment plant.
For those not so up to speed with pigment production there are two main processes for making pigment :
- Sulphate Process - This is OLD technology, it is very dirty and polluting, with pollution control very expensive. It produces large amount of waste material. Australia had a few notable Sulphate Pigment plants including in Burnie in Tasmania (long closed), which for years turned the beaches red and another polluting plant in Bunbury WA which has now been replaced by a Chloride plant.
- Chloride Process - This process was introduced by DuPont around 1960 (new technology 
), it is much cleaner as it uses higher grade feedstock and therefore produces MUCH less waste and is a MUCH cleaner process. It produces a much higher quality pigment which is noticeably whiter. This is how most of the western pigment is made and is starting to be made by this route in China now that they have 'learned' this process
There is no way that a Sulphate plant would be palatable to be built in Australia, let alone discharging into the harbour in Darwin. The thought of building this with a bespoke front end to allow the plant to process TIVAN Ti feedstock was a bridge too far for me. As I learn more I realise that this was NEVER going to be viable.
From what I can tell is that TIVAN is still solid. It just doesn’t have a saleable Ti Product, which was a bummer to discover after I invested in TNG for this purpose. PB you are still on my sh1t list for selling me this pup.
From what I have learnt about TIVAN + is that CSIRO has some proprietary IP that will allow the high Ti, Low iron TIVAN feedstock to be sold directly to pigment producers, making a viable co-product and again disrupting the Ti Feedstock industry.
I don’t know if the new product is suitable for the Chloride or Sulphate process but as you rightly point out that the TIVAN product doesn’t have enough iron to start the Sulphate process off I am hopeful that is aimed at the bigger and growing Chloride market.If not a Sulphate feedstock will still be a saleable co-product.
Unlike Sandboy, there is not much that I miss about the old TNG days.I don’t class myself as a sucker, but I was duped by Burton who perpetuated a lie constantly digging a big hole to justify his salary. I don’t want to dwell on this, but I and many others here feel strongly about this and I need to call it out.
It sounds like you may well be connected somehow to Simon Morten (I recall you mentioning that the company should listen to him previously) and possibly Mr Guillemaille.These guys are both well known in the Ti Industry (particularly Simon) but my respect for them has diminished after learning the TNG plans for building a modified Sulphate plant in Darwin.This was never going to fly and as respected experts this should have been called out to Burton and the market long ago.
What the new team has gone about righting the wrongs of previous management.They appear to have found a solution with CSIRO and are actually looking to PROVE their technology via a pilot plant.Novel technology is never going to attract private capital without this important step.
