Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco) has agreed to set up a venture
with London-listed Aricom Plc for a US$300 million titanium sponge
project in northeast Heilongjiang Province.
Aricom will own 65 percent in the venture, Aricom said in a
statement on its website.
The plant, in Jiamusi, Heilongjiang, will have annual capacity
of 15,000 tons of titanium sponge. Titanium sponge is the basic
form of titanium metal used in titanium products, widely used in
sectors such as aviation.
Aricom will supply ilmenite, a source of titanium dioxide, to
the plant from its deposits in Amur, in Russia's Far East. The
mines are about 1,300 kilometers away from the plant.
They have just completed a feasibility study for the project,
according to Aricom. Construction is scheduled to start in July but
the plant needs to secure approval from China's environment
protection authority and the National Development and Reform
Commission and Ministry of Commerce.
Full commissioning of the plant is expected in 2010 and
production capacity could be doubled to 30,000 tons a year later,
it said.
China's demand for titanium products is expected to jump to
20,000 tons in 2010 from 13,985 tons in 2006.
The proposed joint venture would utilize Aricom's production of
ilmenite, expertise in titanium resource exploitation, access to
capital and technology together with Chinalco's capital,
technologies, local power base and proficiency in engineering
design and construction and metal production, Aricom said.
Aricom is an Anglo-Russia company developing mineral assets in
the Far East, aiming to serve the Chinese and Russian markets.
Beijing-based Chinalco, the nation's leading non-ferrous metals
producer, is the state parent of listed Chalco.
(Shanghai Daily January 11, 2008)
