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TRG makes rutile pricing stand

July 27, 2010 - 00:00 GMT

KEYWORDS: TRG , rutile , prices , titanium dioxide , pigment

In a interview with IM, Neil Gawthorpe, marketing director of Sierra Leone rutile miner, Titanium Resources Group, targets wholesale changes to the way rutile is priced and calls for the sector to take advantage of a ‘golden opportunity’ by Simon Moores, Deputy Editor

Over the last 18 months serious concern has gripped those that mine titanium minerals such as rutile and ilmenite and those that consume them, the titanium dioxide (TiO₂) pigment producers.

The miners believe that profitability is being eaten away by pigment manufacturers in that feedstock prices are too low. This is far from a new scenario but one that has still not properly been addressed according to the bulk of the industry.

TRG, the owner of Sierra Rutile Ltd in Sierra Leone,
is pushing for rutile suppliers to have more of a
say in pricing. TRG

On the pigment side, a realisation is now beginning to sink in that come 2013, there will probably not be enough feedstock minerals to go round. Supply is dwindling in relation to demand, new projects are not emerging and developments are being cancelled at a rate never seen before.

This has strengthened the position of...

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