International Coatings Scene
LATIN AMERICA
BY CHARLES W. THURSTON
LATIN AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT
THURSTONCW@RODPUB.COM
White Mountain’s Chilean
titanium plant completed
With recovery
in sight for
the TiO2
market, White
Mountain is
investing in
its Chilean
operations.
The Cerro Blanco natural rutile titanium dioxide pilot plant in Chile has completed a year of tests peaking at 97% pure concentrate, and now owner White Mountain
Titanium Corp., of Vancouver, Canada is preparing for full-scale development funding.
“From our perspective, the toughest nut to
crack was pilot phase, because pigment buyers
have many demands such as particle size and
calcium levels all within tight parameters,” said
Brian Flower, chairman of White Mountain.
The apparent recovery of the global TiO2
market, as evidenced by price increases
announced for January by most major producers, bodes well for the Cerro Blanco project. While most TiO2 demand growth in the
world is coming from Asia, much of the new
global investment in production is being centered in China. However China holds no titanium reserves, so it will likely look to Chile
for feedstock, according to Flower.
Over the next nine to 12 months, the company will complete in-fill drilling to confirm
100 million metric tons of measured and
reserved ore sufficient for 20 years of production. The cost for this task will be approximately $2.2 million, Flower estimated.
Then, once product purchase agreements are
in place, the company should be able to finance
the estimated $165 million installation of a full
production plant. The facility would handle five
to six million tons of ore per year to produce
130,000 metric tons of high-grade rutile feedstock. According to the company’s 10Q filing
with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission dated November 9, 2009, the cost of the
facility could be as high as $190 million.
The company holds approximately 165 mil-
lion tons of estimated reserves and more
than 33 registered mining exploitation con-
cessions, covering 8,225 hectares located
approximately 39 kilometers west of the City
of Vallenar in the Atacama, or Region III. The
rutile ore also contains high levels of
feldspar, which may be co-produced into sodi-
um feldspar. Up to 600,000 metric tons of
feldspar may be produced depending on
demand. The company has also considered
three other production sites in Chile.
“The apparent recovery of the
global TiO2 market, as evidenced
by price increases announced for
January by most major produc-
ers, bodes well for the Cerro
Blanco project.”
Mountain’s principal engineering consultant.
The consultant reported that electric power
consumption was the highest single cost item,
comprising approximately 31% of the total
estimated unit operating costs. Process water
for the industrial plant may be sourced from a
desalination plant constructed at the port of
Huasco. Other technical consultants to the
project included Arcadis Geotecnica, Cytec
Chile Limitada, by NCL Ingenieria y
Construccion, SGS Lakefield and Centro de
Investigacion Minera y Metalurgica Tecnologia
y Servicios.
White Mountain is a publicly traded U.S. company, of which approximately 60% of the stock is
held by U.S. citizens, according to Flower. In late
December, the stock—WMTM.OB—was trading
at more than $1.00 per share, near its all-time
high of $1.06. CW
