* Joint venture agreement signed with SINTEC
* Set to manufacture 10,000 tonnes for local market, export
By Ravi Ladduwahetty
Laugfs Holdings Ltd will shortly invest US$ 8 million on a Titanium Dioxide manufacturing plant for both the domestic and export markets in a bid to add value to the Illmenite exports, which also has the product as a constituent.
Laugfs Holdings Group Chairman W.G.H. Wegapitiya told The Island Financial Review on the sidelines of a news conference to announce the signing of the joint venture with the Sri Lanka Institute of Nano Technology (SLINTEC).
Initially, a pilot project will be set up at Mabima near the Sapugaskanda oil refinery which will generate the Titanium Dioxide (TIO2) where SINTEC will have their own processes and Laugfs Holdings will go into commercial production at the end of two years, Project Manager Ashan De Silva said.
The target will be to first overcome the annual national requirement of 5,000 tonnes per annum by targeting 10,000 tonnes and the excess will be exported to discerning worldwide markets which will be located at a massive production facility at a yet to be disclosed location in the Eastern Province which is the heart of the roots of the Ilmenite, he said.
Earlier, setting up a new path in the Sri Lankan business sector LAUGFS Holdings Limited together with Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC) signed a landmark development agreement leading to a joint venture to setup the country’s first ever plant to produce titanium dioxide from mineral sand adding value to mineral sands.
Accordingly, the new venture would produce titanium dioxide from Ilmenite obtained from mineral sands extracted from Pulmoddai.
SLINTEC at the onset started a project with the Ministry of Technology and Research and NSF as a partner to produce titanium dioxide - TiO2 and Nano TiO2 from Ilmenite obtained from mineral sands of Pulmoddai. Ilmenite is a mineral formed from oxides of titanium and iron (FeO.TiO2). It is also one of the major sources of metallic Titanium. Sri Lanka is estimated to have 18 million metric tons (MT) of Ilmenite reserves amounting to 9th largest in the world. The country’s north and east beach sands contained about 70 – 72% Ilmenite and it is estimated to have 6 – 8 million MT of Ilmenite according to the surveys of the geological survey and mines bureau (GSMB) of Sri Lanka.
Pulmoddai Ilmenite is known to contain about 50 – 60% of Titanium dioxide in its composition.
Titanium dioxide (Ti02) is one of the heavily used oxides. Nearly 60% of the world titanium oxide production is consumed by the paint industry. In addition to paints and coatings, printing ink, paper, rubber, textile, polyester fibre, rayon, plastic, leather, detergent, electronic, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, refractory industries use TiO2 as a raw material. Both TiO2 and nano TiO2 demand is projected to grow as above industries are growing. Especially, in the case of TiO2 the world production is struggling to keep up with the increasing demand. This has been indicated in the recent price increase (in 2011 reaching nearly $4000 per MT) and opening of several new manufacturing plants by the major titanium dioxide manufacturers around the world.
Current Sri Lanka consumption of Titanium Dioxide is around 5000 MT (at about $4000 per MT) and mineral sand exports are around 60,000 — 80,000 MT (at about $300 per MT). Even though there is a apparent export gain, the total extractable Titanium Dioxide from the exported mineral sands is around 25,000 — 40,000 MT making it a net loss in exports.
Accordingly LAUGFS together with SLINTEC would usher into commercial production of the titanium dioxide which is about 15 times value addition to Ilmenite. Later, the two entities would simultaneously engage in setting up a state of the art processing plant which would produce nano titanium better known as NanoTi02.
source - www.island.lk
No comments:
Post a Comment