Titanium Feedstocks – Opaque Quality Requirements

摘要

Titanium feedstocks are the building blocks of the titanium value chain. They can be mined directly,rnas is the case for ilmenite, leucoxene and rutile, or manufactured from ilmenite by extractingrnvarious quantities of non-TiO_2 components from the ore by chemical and/or thermal processes.rnWhile feedstocks can be grouped into categories of materials with similar characteristics, theyrnare essentially unique products from very different mining locations around the world. In fact, norntwo feedstocks are exactly the same. As such, the variations between the available feedstocks, inrncombination with the permutations in processing technologies to turn the feedstocks into titaniumrnpigment or metal, mean that choices between feedstocks are specifi c to the location in which theyrnare utilised.rnIn this paper, the authors examine the key requirements of titanium feedstocks to the TiO_2 pigmentrnand metal sectors. Apart from the well known differences between feedstock choices for the sulfaternand chloride process, the more opaque considerations in feedstock sourcing are examined.