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India's Nalco enters Titanium space

The state-owned aluminium producer has signed a deal with Indian Rare Earths to begin making value-added products and looks set to start commercial production in two years

MUMBAI -

Indian state-owned aluminium producer, Nalco, has decided to branch out into titanium.

A few days ago, it signed a joint venture (JV) with Indian Rare Earths, another public sector unit with the Indian Department of Atomic Energy.

The JV is expected to make value-added products from beach sand minerals - the key raw material needed to make titanium.

Recently, scientists at the University of Leeds in the UK said they had discovered a way to extract significant quantities of rare-earth oxides, present in titanium dioxide minerals.

Even as China announces a cut to its export quota for rare earth elements by 35% in the first six months of 2011, the two companies in India have decided to set up the project at Chhatrapur, about 157 km from Bhubaneswar, Orissa.

Reports indicate that total exports by China are to be capped at 14,446 tonnes from January to end-June, 2011. Reports have further indicated that Chinese exports in rare earths slipped 9.3% to touch 39,813 metric tonne in 2010.

The new JV is expected to get into commercial production in two years. "We will set up a unit at Chhatrapur in Orissa's Ganjam district. Our partner, IREL already owns land in the area and also has the required mining leases," said B L Bagra, finance director, while speaking to the media here.

The proposed plant will initially produce titanium slag, after processing ilmenite from a sand mine owned by India Rare Earths. Nalco is expected to leverage its expertise in smelting technology, which is different from aluminium production.

Details of the plant's annual capacity, cost and equity holding of the two companies in the project are yet to be finalised.

Currently, India meets its demand for titanium, a strong and light metal used in the aviation and automobiles industries, from imports. At present, Ukraine, Russia, Japan and the US are currently the leading players in titanium production.

Earlier, Tata Steel, too, had expressed similar intention to extract ilmenite for the production of the metal but the project got stuck in red tape.

Last November, the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh offered land to Tata Steel for setting up its titanium refinery in the state. Among possible locations on offer were Visakhapatnam and north coastal Andhra districts of Vizianagaram and Srikakulam, but nothing much came out of it.

India currently exports huge quantities of beach sand which contain monazite and ilmenite, two key raw materials for production of titanium, as the country doesn't have the technology to commercially make titanium.

India is estimated to import around 60,000 tonne of titanium dioxide every year.

Titanium is often dubbed as the steel of the future, it is light and corrosion-resistant, and is used as an alloying agent in sectors of high growth like space, nuclear, aviation and automobile sectors as well as in computers and mobile phones.