Fact sheet Industrial minerals

Transcription

1 Fact sheet

2 01 Our industrial minerals business Rio Tinto is a leading international business involved in each stage of metal and mineral production. The Group combines Rio Tinto plc, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. We are among the world s largest producers of several industrial minerals mined products that are used in an astonishing array of products and processes that are essential to every day living. In fact, it would be nearly impossible to get through a day without encountering the industrial minerals we produce. Our industrial minerals portfolio includes borates, talc, salt, gypsum, titanium dioxide, zircon and rutile. These minerals are essential ingredients in the food you eat, as well as your clothing, housing, transportation and entertainment systems. The global demand for industrial minerals is linked very closely to urbanisation and rising standards of living. As growing populations migrate to urban areas and diets, housing and transportation improve, food producers and manufacturers require industrial minerals in larger volumes. also contribute to higher environmental standards through their use in renewable energy production, insulation and lighter, more fuel efficient cars and by lowering energy use and emissions in the production of glass, paint, plastics and ceramics. are valued for their physical and chemical properties. For instance, they might be used to raise crop yields, trap heat, absorb neutrons, improve flame retardancy, strengthen building materials, make industrial processes cleaner and replace more harmful chemicals. The useful tasks that these minerals perform vary depending upon the application. Sometimes, industrial minerals are one of the main components of the end product, such as gypsum in wallboard or talc in body powder. Other end products use only trace amounts. However, without that mineral content, the product would not perform. Boron, for instance, is an essential micronutrient for all plants and boron deficiency affects almost all major crops grown around the world. Without borate fertilisers, crop yields and quality can be greatly reduced. It is these abilities that make our industrial minerals in the right form and in the right application so valuable. Left Our Dampier Salt operations in Australia. Cover image Borax decahydrate crystal.

3 02 03 Our industrial mineral operations Rio Tinto s industrial minerals operations are located in Europe, Africa, North and South America, Asia and Australia. The industrial minerals businesses are part of Rio Tinto s Diamonds & Minerals product group, with the exception of Dampier Salt which reports into the Iron Ore product group. This enables the salt and iron ore businesses to take advantage of synergies in Western Australia, where both have production centres. Our Minerals group is divided into two operating companies, Rio Tinto Minerals (RTM), which produces borates and talc and manages development projects for lithium and borates; and Rio Tinto Iron & Titanium (RTIT), which produces titanium dioxide, zircon and rutile. Right Borate storage domes at our Boron Operations in California s Mojave Desert.

4 04 05 Rio Tinto Minerals Dampier Salt Borates Borates are a group of products derived from boron containing minerals. They are key ingredients in fibreglass, glass, ceramics, fertilisers, detergents, wood preservatives and numerous other products. Rio Tinto Minerals (RTM Rio Tinto: 100 per cent) supplies more than 40 per cent of global demand for refined borates and is acknowledged as the world leader in borate technology, research and development. Our largest borate operation is our open pit mine in Boron, in California s Mojave Desert, which has been operating since Boron is one of two world class borate deposits on the planet. We also mine borates from desert lake beds and other deposits in the Argentine Andes. The primary borate mine in this operation, Tincalayu, is one of South America s largest borate operations. We process our borate ore locally into a wide range of products, including borax pentahydrate and boric acid. Further refining and processing takes place in Coudekerque, France and Wilmington, California. We also have shipping terminals in Wilmington; Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Nules, Spain; and Changshu, China, and a global network of sales offices and stock points. Borates are primarily used in glass production. Borates make the glass more tolerant of contraction and expansion, and they are important ingredients in insulation fibreglass, textile fibreglass, thin film transistors used in liquid crystal displays (LCDs) for televisions and computer screens, glass components of solar heating devices and heat resistant glass for products such as cookware. Other uses for borates include detergents, soaps and personal care products; ceramic and enamel frits and glazes and tile bodies; and agricultural micronutrients, wood preservatives, and flame retardants. Through their many uses, borates offer various performance, cost, environmental, health and safety advantages. In insulation fibreglass, for instance, borates biggest single use, they help reduce the energy needed to produce the glass melt. The finished insulation product helps conserve energy by trapping heat inside insulated structures. Talc RTM is the world s leading talc producer, supplying nearly 20 per cent of talc demand worldwide from mines and processing facilities in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain and the US. Our Trimouns mine in the French Pyrenees is the world s largest talc operation. Talc enhances performance in countless applications, although it is best known as a personal care product. Key uses for talc include paper, paints, polymers and ceramics. In 2007, after a Groupwide review of assets, Rio Tinto announced that it was investigating options to divest its talc business. Rio Tinto, through its 68.4 per cent owned subsidiary, Dampier Salt, is the world s largest salt exporter. We produce salt at three locations in Western Australia: Dampier, Port Hedland and Lake MacLeod. The most abundant source of salt is the ocean, but it can also be produced from underground brines or from solid salt geological formations. At the Dampier and Port Hedland operations (separated by around 200km), salt is produced by evaporation of seawater, by means of energy from the sun and assisted by the wind. In the process, seawater flows through a series of concentration ponds in which the salinity is progressively increased. When this brine is saturated with sodium chloride, it is pumped into crystallising ponds where the sodium chloride will crystallise as a pure solid deposit. The solid material is then recovered, processed and shipped to customers. It takes about 65 million tonnes of seawater to produce one million tonnes of salt. The total area under evaporation at our salt operations is 19,500 hectares, equivalent to 27,900 football fields. The three sites evaporate an average of 1.1 billion litres of water a day, enough to fill 18,000 domestic swimming pools. Rio Tinto s share of salt production by Dampier is over six million tonnes a year. Our salt customers are in Asia and the Middle East. The majority are chemical companies who use salt as feedstock for the production of chlorine and caustic soda (together known as chlor-alkali production). These are used in the manufacture of many chemicals and downstream products including alumina and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Our salt products are also used as food salt and for general purposes including road de-icing. We sell gypsum to the wallboard and cement industries in Asia and Australia. Top Our industrial minerals businesses are Rio Tinto Minerals, Rio Tinto Iron & Titanium and Dampier Salt (pictured). At our Lake MacLeod operation, we produce salt from underground brines that are ten times more concentrated than seawater, eliminating the need for the concentration ponds before the crystallising stage. At Lake MacLeod, we also mine gypsum.

5 06 07 Rio Tinto Iron & Titanium Rio Tinto Iron & Titanium (RTIT) and its affiliates mine ilmenite in Canada, South Africa and Madagascar, which is upgraded into a high quality titanium dioxide feedstock product. Co-products include high purity iron, steel, metallic powders, zircon and rutile. Ilmenite is one of the primary sources of titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), which is a very white, opaque compound that is an important pigment used in products such as paint, plastics and paper. TiO 2 reflects and scatters light like thousands of tiny mirrors, and when used as a pigment it gives brilliance and opacity to these materials. Other, smaller volume uses for TiO 2 include cosmetics, sun screen and toothpaste. While TiO 2 is bright white, ilmenite itself is brown or black, due to its iron content. We process ilmenite to remove the iron, and sell the resulting titanium dioxide feedstock products mainly to pigment manufacturers. Pigment manufacturers refine the feedstock further to produce a titanium dioxide pigment. Pigment manufacturers use two process routes the chloride and the sulphate route to produce TiO 2 pigment, and we offer our products to both sectors of the market. Titanium dioxide feedstock is RTIT s primary product, but we also sell other products that are derived during ilmenite mining and processing. The iron that is removed from the ilmenite is sold as a high purity pig iron. We convert some of this pig iron into steel billets, and iron and steel powders. We also sell some of the ilmenite ore to steel manufacturers as a product called SORELFLUX that helps extend the life of blast furnaces. Ilmenite is mined either from hard rock deposits, or from accumulations in ancient beach sands. In Canada, RTIT s wholly owned subsidiary Rio Tinto Fer et Titane (Rio Tinto 100 per cent) operates an open cast TiO 2 mine at Lac Allard near Havre Saint Pierre, one of the largest ilmenite deposits in the world. From the Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) (Rio Tinto 37 per cent) joint venture in South Africa, we produce ilmenite from mineral sand deposits. The RBM orebody is mined using a system of ponds and floating dredgers. The sands are sucked up into the dredges, where the heavy valuable minerals (ilmenite, zircon, rutile) are recovered, and the remaining sand particles are then used to reconstruct and rehabilitate the landscape after mining has finished. RBM s product portfolio also includes rutile and zircon, two other minerals found in its sand deposits. Rutile is used in welding rod fluxes and in the manufacture of titanium metal as well as the production of pigment. Zircon s principal uses are in the ceramics (in particular bathroom tiles), foundry, chemicals and refractory industries. QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) (Rio Tinto 80 per cent) is a mineral sands operation based around an ilmenite orebody near Fort Dauphin, southern Madagascar. It comprises a mine, separation plant and port facilities. This joint venture with the Government of Madagascar began producing ilmenite at the end of 2008, and is in the process of ramping up to a capacity of 750,000 tonnes per year. QMM produces ilmenite from beach sands which is shipped to Rio Tinto Fer et Titane s facilities in Canada for onward processing into titanium dioxide slag. Top In Canada we produce ilmenite from hard rock deposits in Quebec. Left Preparing seedlings as part of rehabilitation work at Richards Bay Minerals, South Africa.

6 08 09 Our industrial mineral projects The Jadar lithium-borate project is a pre-feasibility stage lithium and borates project located approximately 100 kilometres from Belgrade in Serbia. It is likely to take another five to six years to bring the project into production. If successful, the deposit will yield boric acid as well as lithium carbonate. Lithium and its compounds have several industrial applications, including heat resistant glass and ceramics and high strength alloys used in aircraft. The fastest growing application is lithium batteries to power consumer and industrial systems. We are also evaluating the Mutamba ilmenite project in Inhambane Province, southern Mozambique Major industrial minerals operations Locations on the map are indicative. Operations and projects are wholly owned unless otherwise shown. Top The nursery and ecological centre at QIT Madagascar Minerals. Borate operations 1 Boron Operations (mining and refining) 2 Wilmington Operations (refining and shipping) 3 Argentina Operations (mining and refining) 4 Coudekerque Operations (refining) 5 Nules Operations (refining and shipping) 6 Rotterdam Operations (shipping) 7 Changshu Operations (shipping) Talc (major mines) 8 Timmins and Penhorwood Operations (Canada) 9 Trimouns and Luzenac Operations (France) 10 Three Springs Operations (Australia) 11 Yellowstone, Three Forks and Sappington Operations (US) 12 Argonaut and Ludlow Operations 13 Kleinfeistritz and Weisskirchen Operations 13 Rabenwald and Oberfeistritz Operations 14 Rodoretto and Malanaggio Operations 15 Respina and Bonar Operations Salt 16 Dampier (68%) 17 Lake MacLeod (68%) 16 Port Hedland (68%) Titanium dioxide feedstock 18 Rio Tinto Fer et Titane Lac Allard 19 Rio Tinto Fer et Titane (Sorel plant) 20 QIT Madagascar Minerals (80%) 21 Richards Bay Minerals (37%) Titanium dioxide feedstock project 22 Mutamba ilmenite Lithium project 23 Jadar Key Mines and mining projects Smelters, refineries and processing plants remote from mine

7 Fact sheets Corporate profile Aluminium Copper Diamonds Energy Iron ore Technology and innovation Exploration Rio Tinto plc 2 Eastbourne Terrace London W2 6LG United Kingdom T +44 (0) Rio Tinto Limited 120 Collins Street Melbourne, Victoria 3000 Australia T +61 (0)