Kwale project one step closer to fruition

A metallurgical flow sheet designed for the Kwale heavy mineral sands project on the coast of Kenya indicates high mineral recovery rates.

The pilot-plant study, conducted by Australian-based MD Mineral Technologies on behalf of Tiomin Resources (TIO-T), concludes that at least 93% of run-of-mine material could be recovered as marketable product.

The 2-stage process involves an initial pass through a wet mineral separation plant to produce a heavy concentrate using simple gravity and spiral methods. The heavy concentrate is then passed through a separate plant to liberate the favorable minerals utilizing magnetic, electrostatic and gravity separation techniques.

In the design tests, end-product rutile assayed higher than 97.7% titanium dioxide, whereas ilmenite recovered from the wet magnetic circuit came in at half that grade; these purity levels are considered sufficient for both chloride and sulphate-based pigment manufacturing technologies. Similar tests on zircon indicate premium ceramic grade, with few impurities.

Tiomin is expected to commission a full feasibility study based on hourly production rates of 1,500 tonnes in the first plant and 80 tonnes in the second. These rates are expected to result in hourly production of 48 tonnes ilmenite, 9.9 tonnes rutile and 5.3 tonnes zircon.

Resources are pegged at 200 million tonnes, consisting of 3.8 million tonnes ilmenite, 1 million tonnes rutile and 600,000 tonnes zircon. A prefeasibility study concluded that this is sufficient for 15 years of production, yielding 331,000 tonnes ilmenite, 71,000 tonnes rutile and 33,000 tonnes zircon annually.

Tiomin owns an 80% interest in Kwale and in four nearby titanium-bearing mineral sands deposits. The remaining interest in each deposit is held on a carried basis by sister company Pangea Goldfields (PGD-T).