National Mineral Policy 2006 - Department of Mines

7.78 The technology for conversion of ilmenite into titanium dioxide and titanium metaland alloys is not widely available, and is in fact closely held. As will be seen from Table 7.6,India is one of the few countries with large deposits of ilmenite along with the other resourcecountries such as Australia, South Africa, and Canada.Table 7.6: World Ilmenite ReservesCountryReserves(million tonnes)Share of total(%)India 461.37 30.42Norway 244 16.13Canada 200 13.22Australia 180 11.90South Africa 162 10.71China 142 9.39USA 82.2 5.42Others 42 2.81Total 1512 100Source: As per presentation made by Transworld Garnet (India) Pvt. Ltd before High LevelCommittee.The issue is whether to allow mining of ilmenite and permit free exports of the mineral or toinsist on value addition by way of conversion to titanium dioxide and titanium metals andalloys within the country. The issue of value addition in respect of ilmenite is not verydifferent from that of iron ore and bauxite. Ilmenite is required for titanium just as iron ore isrequired for steel and bauxite for aluminium. The matter has been dealt with in Chapter 5 andalso, to some extent, in paragraphs 7.15 and 7.16 above on captive mining. In the abovediscussions, the Committee has concluded that while some additional weightage might begiven to value adders when there are multiple applications, including applications from valueadders, minerals should not be kept under the ground awaiting an application from a valueadder. Here the question to be examined is whether there are any distinguishing features thatrequire special treatment for ilmenite as the main raw material for titanium.7.79 The two end-use segments of ilmenite feedstock are: (i) titanium dioxide for pigmentproduction; and (ii) titanium sponge production for metal and alloys. The annual growth rateof the pigment industry is about 3 per cent and of titanium sponge is about 0.8 per cent. Thedemand and supply figures show that the gap in supply and demand of pigment and titaniumsponge may not accommodate too many players in the long run to manufacture theseproducts either at Indian or at global levels. Currently, the estimated global consumption ofpigment is about 5 million tonnes, valued at US$ 8 billion, and that for sponge is about70,000 tonnes, valued at US$ 2.66 billion. A survey by MECON Limited (a Government of175