Name of the project and location
Corridor Sands, near Chibuto, Gaza province, Mozambique.

Project description
The Corridor Sands project envisages the establishment of an integrated heavy-mineral-sands mining, mineral-processing, and beneficiation operation near Chibuto.

The project includes the opencast mining, processing and smelting of iron and titanium-bearing sand ore, and will yield various titanium products as well as pig iron.

Corridor Sands, which contains more than 100-million tons of ilmenite, is considered to be a 100-year-plus asset.

Value
The project is being reconfigured.

Duration
A timeframe for the project has not been disclosed.

Breakdown of main contracts
Not stated.

Client
Corridor Sands Limitada (CSL), a Mozambican company owned by BHP Billiton, following its acquisition of WMC Resources of Melbourne, Australia.

Latest developments
BHP Billiton is advancing plans to develop the Corridor Sands project but on a much different scale than first envisaged by WMC Resources. A validation study by BHP Billiton late in 2006 indicated that the execution of the project as originally planned by WMC Resources, was no longer viable. The validation study found that the capital cost of the project had increased significantly as a result of the “hot market and strengthening rand”. On the other hand, there was not a corresponding increase in titanium slag prices, as new capacity was brought on stream elsewhere in the world to cater to rising demand.

The company has been able to reduce by hundreds of millions of dollars the cost of the project by leveraging it on the company's Mozal aluminium smelters in the vicinity of the Mozambique's capital, Maputo.

The bankable feasibility study completed by WMC Resources in 2002 required the construction of dedicated infrastructure – including a port, roads and power lines – at the town of Chibuto, which is 180 km from the capital, Maputo. However, by separating the heavy-mineral-sands project's mining and smelting operations, and relocating the smelters close to the Mozal smelters, the company has been able to reduce Corridor Sands' original focus on dedicated infrastructure.

According to the new plan, ilmenite mining and the separation and concentration of heavy minerals from the feedstock will take place at Chibuto.

The heavy minerals will then be trucked and railed near to Mozal.

BHP Billiton plans to move the reconfigured project into feasibility study phase in 2008.

The first phase of the proposed project could employ one or two smelters to produce an estimated 250 000 t/y of titania slag.

The company is pursuing a modular development strategy and will carefully develop the asset in order not to disturb the market for products produced from heavy-mineral sands.

Further, full production could be reached between 2015 and 2016, at which time Corridor Sands could be on a par with Richards Bay Minerals, in KwaZulu-Natal, which is the world's largest mineral-sands operation.

Participants
Arup (bankable feasibility study on the alternate-export-facility dedicated haul road).

On budget and on time?
Too early to state.

Contact details for project information
BHP Billiton vice-president investor and media relations, Michael Campbell, tel (011) 376 3360.