plant has three extrusion lines, with acapacity of 7000 tonnes/y and aworkforce of 15 people. Within fiveyears, the capacity at Villiers St Paulwill be trebled to 20,000 tones/y.Target markets for masterbatchesproduced here will be the automotiveand packaging sectors. Annual salesrevenue from this plant is forecast at€8 M for 2010.

Chimie Pharma Hebdo, 9 Jun 2008, (426), 12(Website: http://www.france-chimie.com) (in French)

India: Ashapura - kaolin

Commissioning of the new 180,000tonnes/y kaolin processing facilities byAshapura Kaolin has been delayed bya few months, but is now expected tobegin in October 2008. About Rup 1bn has been invested in this projectand when fully operational, it willprovide about 300 direct and indirectjobs. The new plant is located on a3.6 hectares site within the KinfraApparel Industrial Park inThiruvananthapuram (akaTrivandrum), the capital city of Keralaprovince. Initially, crude kaolin will bederived from Ashapura’s Mullaserrimine, but this may be supplementedin due course by material from theSaathavattam deposit. (See also‘Focus on Pigments’, Jun 2008, 5).

Asian Ceramics, Jun 2008, 55

India: Balamurugan Chemicals &Beach Minerals – TiO2

Balamurugan Chemicals is planningto invest Rup 850 M (just over $19 M)to build a 15,000 tonnes/y sulfate-route TiO2 plant at Tuticorin (TamilNadu province). As by-products, theplant will also produce 36,000tonnes/y of ferrous sulfateheptahydrate; 48,000 tonnes/y ofhydrated magnesium sulfate; 7500tonnes/y of carbon dioxide; and 7500tonnes/y of iron oxide pigments.Ilmenite feedstock will be provided byBeach Minerals Co (BMC), whichcurrently produces over 60,000tonnes/y of ilmenite in associationwith its garnet mining operations inthe Kuttam district of Tamil Nadu.Beach Minerals is an affiliate ofBalamurugan Chemicals, bothcompanies being controlled by theSukumar family.

A public hearing on theenvironmental aspects of the project

was convened by the Tamil NaduPollution Control Board in mid-August,at which concerns were raised aboutwater supply and effluent disposal.

TiO2 Worldwide Update, Jul/Aug 2008, 16 (4), 21

India: Kiri & Well Prospering – dyes

Kiri Dyes & Chemicals (of India) andWell Prospering Ltd (of Hong Kong)have agreed to establish a jointventure to build a new dyestuffs plantat Dudhwada in the Vadodara (akaBaroda) district of Gujarat. Thisfollows Kiri’s move last October toestablish a joint venture with theZhejiang Longsheng group (of China)at Ahmedebad, also in Gujaratprovince. (See ‘Focus on Pigments’,Jan 2008, 5).

Business Line, 27 May 2008, 15 (147), 2

India: Phillips – carbon black

Phillips Carbon Black Ltd (part of theRP Goenka group) has confirmed itsplans to build a new 80,000 tonnes/ycarbon plant at Mundra (Gujarat) andto expand the capacity of its Kochi(Kerala) plant from 40,000 tonnes/y to90,000 tonnes/y. The Mundra plant isdue on-stream in March 2009. TheKochi project is due to be completedby September 2009.

Phillips claims a 40% share of theIndian market. At present, its exportactivity is essentially limited to SriLanka, but onwards from 2009 thecompany is keen to export toEuropean markets.

Business Line, 25 Jul 2008, 15 (206), 3

India: Saraf & Technokhim – TiO2

Titanium Products Pvt Ltd (TPPL),which is jointly owned by SarafAgencies (of Kolkata), Technokhimand Vneshcombank (both of Moscow)is poised to begin civil constructionwork at the 100 hectare site inGopalpur earmarked for its TiO2project. The first phase of the projectwill include an ilmenite smelter,capable of producing up to 70,000tonnes/y of titania slag (with a TiO2content of 90%), and a 40,000tonnes/y chloride-route TiO2 pigmentplant. Both the smelter and thepigment plant will be designed byTechnokhim and will incorporateRussian technology. This first phase

of the project should be completedduring 2012/13.

The second phase of the project,due for completion in 2018, entailsenlarging the production site to 220hectares. Presumably this will allowfor expansion of pigment capacity andfor the establishment of a 10,000tonnes/y titanium sponge metal plant.

Chemical Weekly, 24 Jun 2008, 53 (45), 126

Japan: Sumitomo - resorcinol

Sumitomo Chemical claims to be theworld’s largest and lowest-costproducer of resorcinol, which is animportant intermediate in themanufacture of various dyes andcolorants, including oxidativecolorants in hair-care treatments.Resorcinol is also used for making UVabsorbers, pharmaceuticals andformaldeyhde/resorcinol resins for therubber and timber industries. Thecompany has outlined a project toraise its capacity from 20,000tonnes/y to 30,000 tonnes/y bybuilding a new unit at an unidentifiedlocation in Japan.

Chimie Pharma Hebdo, 2 Jun 2008, (425), 10 (inFrench)

Jordan: Al-Ahlia Mining - GCC

A new mining company, Al-AhliaMining Co, has been established inJordan with the objective of producingup to 120,000 tonnes/y of groundcalcium carbonate (GCC) at Al-Hasa(near Amman). It plans to export mostof its output to other markets in theMiddle East, Southeast Asia andpossibly Europe too. The companyhas secured mining rights for 30 yearson a nearby limestone deposit, whichis believed to contain 40 M tonnes.Depending on market uptake, Al-Ahliamay set up a second production lineat the Al-Hasa plant for start-up in2010. Jordan Minerals and JordanCarbonate are already producingGCC elsewhere in the country.

Industrial Minerals, Jul 2008, (490), 11

Romania: Hundoara - talc

SC Talc Dolomita SA Hundoaragenerated sales revenue of the orderof $7 M last year from its talc anddolomite mining operations. Thecompany operates a talc mine at

4 SEPTEMBER 2008

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