Africa’s titanium pigment market will have a new player through a technology partnership between Nyanza Light Metals and Avertana of New Zealand.

The partnership between Nyanza Light Metals and Avertana will culminate in the construction of a R4 billion titanium dioxide pigment (TiO2) production plant in the Richards Bay industrial development zone.

The plant will use waste steel slag that Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium has been stockpiling at its Witbank operations, 120 km east of Johannesburg, since 1965. The Witbank slag of about 45 Mt equates to about 200 years of project life.