Tracking Development - Rio Tinto - Qit Madagascar Minerals

The exploration & study Phase
QMM At A Glance
Rio Tinto is a leading global mining group, combining Rio
Tinto plc, a London listed public company, with headquarters
in the United Kingdom, and Rio Tinto Limited, listed on
the Australian Stock Exchange, with executive offices in
Melbourne. The two companies are joined in a dual listed
companies (DLC) structure as a single economic entity, called
the Rio Tinto Group 7 . With several operating assets across
the globe and Africa, QMM is one such venture. QMM is 80
per cent owned by Rio Tinto and 20 per cent owned by the
Government of Madagascar.
The project, with a total lifespan of approximately 50 years,
is a heavy mineral sand mining operation extracting ilmenite
and zirsill (zircon mixed with sillimanite) from silica sand
covering an area of 6,000 hectares (ha). Located in three
blocks over a distance of approximately 60km parallel to the
coast, current mining activity is taking place at the 2000ha
Mandena site. Other deposits are found at Sainte Luce and
Petriky. The deposits contain nearly 70 million tonnes of
ilmenite. This quantity accounts for approximately ten per
cent of the world’s deposits. The ilmenite contains 60 per
cent titanium dioxide, making it higher quality than most
other global sources. The minerals are shipped through the
Port of Ehoala to Rio Tinto’s processing facilities in Canada.
Once upgraded, the raw material produces a new 90 per
cent titanium dioxide chloride slag, which is then sold to
titanium pigment producers and used as a white finish in
paints, plastics, paper and dyes 7 . Rio Tinto has invested in a
long-life mine and profitability will depend on exploitation of
all three orebodies.
The Mandena mining complex includes a floating separation
unit connected to a dredge, a mineral separation plant (MSP),
a storeroom, a power plant and a weir.
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