ASX-listed Mineral Commodities (MRC) this week reported that its South African subsidiary, Mineral Sands Resources, had been granted the mining right for its Tormin mineral sands project near Lutzville in the Northern Cape, from the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME).

The company stated that the mining right would be signed on April 25, 2008, along with the environmental management plan (EMP), which was when the mining right would become effective.

"It is intended that final engineering will be completed so that financial close on the project will occur within six months, with production likely to begin in the first half of 2009," the company said.

MRC MD Mark Caruso indicated that the granting of the Tormin mining right was "a watershed moment" for the company, and that it underpinned MRC's strategy of mineral sands development in Southern Africa. "We also envisaged further news on the mining right application of MRC's other South African mineral sands project, Xolobeni, in the next few months," the company said in a statement to shareholders.

The Tormin project is a beach deposit on South Africa's west coast, about 400-km from Cape Town, and about 50-km south of the Anglo American Namakwa Sands project at Band se Baai. The project is also in close proximity to Anglo's mineral seperation plant at Koekenkaap, from where Tormin's planned mineral concentrate output could be transported by existing inland rail about 200-km to the export port at Saldhana Bay.

MRC stated that the Tormin project could produce some 49 000 t/y of "high quality enriched non-magnetic concentrate containing predominantly zircon and rutile".

The Australian parent company, through another South African subsidiary Transworld Energy and Minerals was awaiting feedback from the DME regarding its mining rights application for the somewhat controversial Xolobeni sands project in the Eastern Cape, which was said to contain the world's tenth-largest concentration of titanium producing minerals. However, mining in the area along the Wild Coast had come under criticism, and was viewed by some as unsustainable.

The Xolobeni environmental impact assessment and EMP were submitted to the DME on December 20, 2007, and the company reported that a decision was expected during the June 2008 quarter. Initially the company indicated that a record of decision was expected from the Department on January 15, 2008.

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