Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources is currently assessing the potential for producing titanium from locally-found ilmenite through a US$1.4bn industrial complex that would create up to 1,600 jobs.
The ministry is looking to use ilmenite found in the Qahma region and around the coast of the Southern Province to feed an integrated manufacturing plant that would be capable of producing 500,000 metric tons per annum (MTA) of titanium ore and 235m tonnes of cast iron.
A third plant will produce 20 MTA of titanium powder and a further specialist plant could be built which will produce high-tech finished and semi-finished titanium parts used in oil & gas, power, desalination and chemicals plants. High-tech parts could also be produced for use in aircraft and in organ transplants.
Accompanying an announcement on the signing of eight engineering and construction contracts by Saudi Aramco for the US$6bn Jizan refinery building last week, the ministry said the project would also feature a plant capable of producing white pigments used as additives in the plastics industry, and another to produce zirconium oxy chloride used in manufacturing zirconium compounds and catalysts.
The project units will be distributed between Jizan’s Economc City and Yanbu Industrial City.
The ministry is also assessing a project to produce silicon from quartz ore at a Jizan plant, which it can integrate with a US$140m silicon polymer production plant set to generate 300 jobs.
Follow us on
