Tronox restarts
production at tiwest plant
Tronox has restarted production at the Tiwest synthetic rutile plant in Chandala, Western Australia. Tiwest, a 50/50 joint venture between Tronox and Ticor Pty Ltd., a subsidiary of Kumba Resources Ltd., is one of the world’s largest fully integrated, from mining to finished product, titanium dioxide projects. The Chandala facility, which provides feedstock to several of Tronox’s titanium dioxide pigment plants, was temporarily shut down in July for maintenance that was originally scheduled for 2007, but was accelerated due to a hot spot that developed prematurely in the kiln. Production at Tronox’s pigment plants were not impacted by the Chandala shutdown, as feedstock requirements were fulfilled with Chandala inventory and ore acquired in the market.