The Pitfield titanium project flowsheet shows potential cost savings with alumina as a by-product

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Empire Metals has designed a new process flowsheet for its Pitfield titanium project and plans to produce alumina as a co-product through processing.

Alumina, a hard, durable chemical compound extracted primarily from bauxite ore and heavily used as a primary material for smelting aluminium metal. Previously, Empire Metals explained that its mining body contains several minerals apart from titanium minerals.  Among those is an alumina clay mineral. 

Managing Director of the company, Shaun Bunn, said that they want to reject that concentration from the front end of the plant through flotation because it has a tendency to dilute the titanium concentrate. But this is a very natural carryover during the process. He said, “Rather than continue to try and reject it, we can actually extract the aluminium from that material…and make a very high-grade alumina oxide product up to nearly 99 per cent pure.”

The flowsheet is based on conventional, proven technologies. Located near the mines, the processing facility does not have to rely on the sulfate ilmenite route, as the Pitfield titanium ore has no ilmenite content (an acid-consuming mineral). This is a massive advantage, as it can cut the importing costs of ilmenite feedstock. The process will be operating at lower temperatures, resulting in decreased energy requirements. Besides these, the project faces a “vastly smaller” iron residue problem, leading to much lower expenses for tailings facilities.

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Bunn said the traditional titanium ilmenite industry can not produce an alumina byproduct. But Empire Metals surely can “add another arrow to the bow” without the project being reliant on economic viability.

Pitfield is Empire Metals’ main titanium project and the cornerstone of its growth plan. Situated in Western Australia, it contains a large, globally important titanium mineral system. The mineralisation begins at or near the surface and spreads over a wide area inside a top-tier mining jurisdiction.