National Mineral Policy 2006 - Department of Mines

India enterprise) reported that the demand was in excess of the supply of titanium dioxidepigment in India by about 51,000 tonnes during 2005–06 but this could decline to 42,000tonnes by 2009–10 due to brownfield expansions by existing manufacturers. However, withDuPont’s 100,000 tonnes per year capacity of pigment plant with an investment of US$ 1billion in China expected to go into commercial production by 2007, there could beoversupply of the pigment worldwide thereafter.7.80 Table 7.7 shows the titanium sponge capacity and production in 2005 in selectedcountries.Table 7.7: Titanium Sponge Capacity and ProductionCountry Capacity ProductionUSA 8940 Withheld*China 9500 6500Japan 37,000 29,000Kazakhstan 22,000 19,000Russia 28,000 25,000Ukraine 8100 8100*Withheld to avoid disclosing company proprietary dataSource: US Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2006, available athttp://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mcs/.(tonnes)The world has a sponge capacity of only 110,000 tonnes. Presuming full capacity utilisationin the US, the production in 2005 was 96,940 tonnes. Thus, unlike in the pigment sector,there is excess capacity in the sponge sector. The Indian titanium sponge requirement is about8000 tonnes. Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd. (KMML), using technology from DefenceMetallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) (indigenous), is setting up a sponge productionfacility with an installed capacity of 500 tonnes, investing about Rs 1220 million (US$ 27million) to cater exclusively to the needs of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO),the major consumer of titanium sponge in India today. KMML is of the view that thetechnology developed by DMRL is not cost-effective. Development of a titanium spongeindustry in India is possible only if technology can be accessed. For this, a climate favourableto FDI will have to be created. Alternatively, R&D efforts in the country could be intensifiedfor the development of indigenous technology. The new mining regime that has beenproposed in the earlier chapters, particularly Chapters 1 and 5, envisages that while ingranting LAPL/PL or ML, preference can be given to those among multiple applicants whopropose to add value, particularly in the state concerned, the mines cannot be left unexploredand unexploited in the absence of value adders. Decisions by entrepreneurs on the location of176