Messages from Industrial Materials article“Thejunior explorer plans to bring forward production of ilmenite to Q2 2012
from2013 at La Blache, where the company is looking to establish a mine and a
600,000tpa processing plant.”
Message:Target production day is reconfirmed to be Q2 2012.
ArgexCEO, Michael Dehn, revealed to IM that initial production should be close
to30-50,000 tonnes high purity TiO2 concentrate in 2012 ramping up quickly to
600,000tonnes of TiO2 by the end of 2015.
Message:initial production of 30K HIGH PURITY TiO2. This means RGX management isconfident about the metallurgy process to produce HIGH PURITY TiO2.
“Becauseof our intention to build a modular plant, our production is planned to
bequite scalable,” he said, explaining that Argex was also investigating the
potentialto produce hydrogen instead of using natural gas in the pyrohydrolysis
processto regenerate hydrochloric acid. Our end product is also expected to be equallyusable by sulphate and chloride pigment producers,”
Message:The purity of TiO2 will be high enough for pigment.
“Thedeposit also contains grades of iron (48%) and vanadium (0.36%), and Argex
plansto become a “very large producer of very pure vanadium pentoxide and a
veryhigh grade magnetite and/or hematite”. Vanadium is most often found with
titaniferousmagnetites, phosphate and uranium.”
Message:The metallurgy process is highly successful to produce VERY PURE Vanadiumpentoxide, and VERY HIGH grade magnetite.
“Thegroup also hired engineering firm BBA Inc. to help prepare a scoping study
toanalyse the commercial viability of the project and estimate production rates
andcosts. More than 20,000 metres of drilling was completed between February
andAugust 2010 and results are expected by the end of the year.”
Message:The scoping study is now expanded to include production rate and cost. Thus, itlooks like a feasibility study rather than just scoping study. The scope ofscoping study has expanded, and I think it may take more time to complete.
“Atpresent, the plan is to produce pigment quality TiO2 concentrate. In
addition,the company plans to be a large producer of very pure vanadium
pentoxideand very high grade magnetite and/or haematite.”
Message:All three major metals will be produced. Also note the words “very pure” thatindicates the quality of the metallurgy process.
”Weare miners with an end product that should be the purest product on the
market,”Dehn said.”
Message:The purity of metals produced will be remarkable.
“Anydevelopments that can help us accelerate our production sooner by having a
partnershipor aids in delivering a better quality product at a lower cost
shouldbe considered,”
Message:RGX looking for a partner right now?
“Wethink we can have a superior product at a lower
price.This may actually remove some high cost producers from the market place,”
Message:Very pure grade but produced with very LOW cost. That is very economical.
“Dehnsaid.The deposit being very close to Baie Comeau which has the large aluminium
refinersand port facility Argex believes that ore and finished product handling
shouldbe more efficient than Rio Tinto QIT which smelts ilmenite for primary
usein TiO2 pigment, and its Havre-Saint-Pierre minsands mine in Quebec.”
Message:The metallurgy process will be more efficient than the existing QIT process.