Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) is a South African

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

company. RBM's principal product is

titanium dioxide Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium(IV) oxide or titania , is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula . When used as a pigment, it is called titanium white, Pigment White 6 (PW6), or CI 77891. It is a white solid that is insolub ...

in the form of an 85% pure

slag; the company also produces the higher-purity 95% titanium dioxide product

rutile Rutile is an oxide mineral composed of titanium dioxide (TiO2), the most common natural form of TiO2. Rarer polymorphs of TiO2 are known, including anatase, akaogiite, and brookite. Rutile has one of the highest refractive indices at visib ...

as well as pig iron and

zircon Zircon () is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates and is a source of the metal zirconium. Its chemical name is zirconium(IV) silicate, and its corresponding chemical formula is Zr SiO4. An empirical formula showing some of t ...

. The company's principal operations are just north of

Richards Bay Richards Bay ( af, Richardsbaai) is a town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is situated on a 30 square kilometre lagoon of the Mhlatuze River, which makes it one of the country's largest harbours. Richards Bay also has the deepest natural h ...

in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, in a 2-kilometer wide by 17-kilometer long strip of mineral-rich sand dunes. The area is known as Zulti North mine lease area and will continue to be mined until 2030. RBM mines the using a dredge mining technique, extracting the titanium-iron ore

ilmenite Ilmenite is a titanium-iron oxide mineral with the idealized formula . It is a weakly magnetic black or steel-gray solid. Ilmenite is the most important ore of titanium and the main source of titanium dioxide, which is used in paints, printing ...

as well as

and

from the sand. This feedstock is then processed into RBM's product lines at a facility which sorts the various materials and processes them to varying degrees into marketable materials. RBM is controlled by

Rio Tinto Rio Tinto, meaning "red river", may refer to: Businesses * Rio Tinto (corporation), an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and resources corporation ** Rio Tinto Alcan, based in Canada ** Rio Tinto Borax in America *** Rio Tinto Borax Mine, ...

which owns 74% of it. Blue Horizon Investments (24%) and RBM permanent employees (2%) also have an interest in the mine. Prior to 2012,

BHP Billiton BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

owned 37% but that interest was later purchased by Rio Tinto in February 2012. In April 2019, Rio Tinto announced an investment into the Zulti South project, which is located south of Richards Bay, South Africa. The investment value is $463 million (6.5 billion

South African rand The South African rand, or simply the rand, ( sign: R; code: ZAR) is the official currency of the Southern African Common Monetary Area: South Africa, Namibia (alongside the Namibian dollar), Lesotho (alongside the Lesotho loti) and Eswatin ...

) and is aimed at sustaining the mine's capacity and extending the life of the mine. Production from Zulti South will be processed through RBM's existing infrastructure (pipelines, a mineral separation plant and smelting facility). Construction is scheduled to start in mid-2019 and the first commercial production expected in late 2021.

References

BHP Rio Tinto (corporation) subsidiaries Surface mines in South Africa Titanium mining Mining companies of South Africa Companies based in KwaZulu-Natal Richards Bay {{SouthAfrica-company-stub