JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – West Africa-focused mineral sands miner Sierra Rutile achieved record ilmenite production of 12 803 t in the first quarter of this year – an 86% increase on the 6 868 t produced in the first quarter of 2014.

Zircon concentrate output decreased by 63% year-on-year to 318 t, while rutile output fell 17% year-on-year to 23 342 t in the first quarter of this year.

Sierra Rutile CEO John Sisay said that, while the company’s first-quarter rutile production was slightly below the quarterly budget, the Aim-listed company remained confident of meeting its full-year rutile production guidance.

“With the sharp decline in Ebola cases in Sierra Leone, Ebola-related challenges have recently started to ease, which will allow us to accelerate maintenance plans and drive forward production levels.

“We continue to remain vigilant for any occurrences of Ebola and all controls remain in place. We are optimistic that conditions in the country will continue to improve, allowing us to embark on further operational improvements and expansion projects during this year,” he stated.

EXPANSION PROJECTS
In the quarter under review, Sierra Rutile continued to refine the engineering and planning for its Gangama Dry Mining project.

A geotechnical study was started in March, with limited preparatory earthworks undertaken using excess capacity in Sierra Rutile's own equipment fleet – at a cost of about $500 000 – to enable work to be completed prior to the onset of the 2015 rainy season.

Sierra Rutile continued to refine its plans for the Gangama project and would provide a more comprehensive update in the coming months.
 
The company also continued to advance its Sembehun dredge project, using the results of the continued Gangama mine work and findings from the Lanti mine.

Besides the mining and concentrating plan, further work was under way to increase the confidence level of future studies.

Sierra Rutile expected to be in a position to provide an update on the results of this work by the end of the second quarter of this year.

SALES
The majority of Sierra Rutile’s 2015 rutile production had been committed.

“This reflects the value customers continue to place on the security of supply and the premium quality of Sierra Rutile’s product,” the company averred.

It stated that strong economic conditions in the US would support continued pigment demand, adding that the titanium metal market had also seen “some recovery”, largely driven by aerospace demand.

A number of major consumers had drawn down their feedstock and semifinished product inventories, which was likely to result in higher demand for high-grade chloride feedstock later this year.

Further, looking to the longer term, Sierra Rutile believed the rate of advancement of Chinese chloride-process development was improving, positioning Chinese customers as a “meaningful” new source of rutile demand in the future.

These positive demand improvements had, however, been tempered by forced sales from certain distressed titanium-dioxide feedstock producers that continued to undermine price improvements.