Titanium mining in Kwale to start next month

By Philip Mwakio

Kwale, Kenya: The construction work for allied support infrastructure at the Kwale Mineral Sands Project, which will mine titanium ores in Kwale County, is on course.

According to Base Titanium Limited General Manager - External Affairs and Development, Joe Schwarz, the project construction phase is well advanced and nearing completion.  “The access road to the mine and power transmission line with the sub-station are both complete,’’ Schwarz told The Standard. 

He said that other infrastructure packages, including the port facility, water storage dam and tailing storage facility are now almost 90 per cent complete.

Mining fleet

 He said the central component comprising the processing plants is also nearing completion and commissioning of the facility is due to commence at the end of August.

 The mobile mining fleet has been delivered and the dozer mining unit that will feed ore to the plant is currently being assembled.

He announced that the first consignment of minerals is scheduled to be shipped before the end of this year. “We can authoritatively confirm that construction at the Kwale Project is well advanced, with practical completion on schedule for the third quarter of 2013,’’ he noted.

 He added that by the end of 2013, Base Titanium will commence shipping of three distinct product streams processed from the Kwale project’s high-value, heavy-mineral assemblage and will produce 330,000 tonnes of ilmenite among others.