Editing Ilmenite (section)

== Feedstock production ==
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; clear:right; margin:0 0 .5em 1em;"
|+Various ilmenite feedstock grades.<ref>{{citation|last=Hayes|year=2011|first=Tony|title=Titanium Dioxide: A Shining Future Ahead|url=http://argex.ca/documents/Euro_Pacific_Canada_Titanium_Dioxide_August2011.pdf|publisher=Euro Pacific Canada|access-date=16 Aug 2012|page=5}}{{dead link|date=August 2018}}</ref>
|-
! Feedstock || {{Chem|Ti||O|2}} Content || Process
|-
!  || (%) || 
|-
| Ore || <55 || Sulfate 
|-
| Ore || >55 || Chloride
|-
| Ore || <50 || Smelting (slag)
|-
| Synthetic rutile  || 88–95 || Chloride
|-
| Chloride slag || 85–95 || Chloride
|-
| Sulfate slag || 80 || Sulfate
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; clear:right; margin:0 0 .5em 1em;"
|+Estimated contained {{Chem|Ti||O|2}}. <br> production{{sfn|Hayes|2011|p=5}}<ref>USGS 2012 Survey, p. 174</ref><br><small>(Metric tpa x 1,000,</small><br><small>ilmenite & rutile)</small>
|-
! Year || 2011 || 2012–13
|-
! Country || USGS || Projected
|-
| [[Australia]] || 1,300 || 247
|-
| [[South Africa]] || 1,161 || 190
|-
| [[Mozambique]]  || 516 || 250
|-
| [[Canada]]|| 700||
|-
| [[India]] || 574||
|-
| [[China]] || 500||
|-
| [[Vietnam]] || 490||
|-
| [[Ukraine]] || 357||
|-
| [[Senegal]] || - || 330
|-
| [[Norway]] || 300||
|-
| [[United States]] || 300||
|-
| [[Madagascar]] || 288||
|-
| [[Kenya]] || - || 246
|-
| [[Sri Lanka]] || 62 ||
|-
| [[Sierra Leone]] || 60||
|-
| [[Brazil]] || 48||
|-
| Other countries || 37||
|-
| Total world || ~6,700 || ~1,250
|}

Most ilmenite is recovered from heavy mineral sands ore deposits, where the mineral is concentrated as a [[placer deposit]] and weathering reduces its iron content, increasing the percentage of titanium. However, ilmenite can also be recovered from "hard rock" titanium ore sources, such as [[ultramafic to mafic layered intrusions]] or [[anorthosite]] [[massif]]s. The ilmenite in layered intrusions is sometimes abundant, but it contains considerable intergrowths of magnetite that reduce its ore grade. Ilmenite from anorthosite massifs often contain large amounts of calcium or magnesium that render it unsuitable for the chloride process.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Philip |last2=Frick |first2=Louise |title=Industrial minerals & rocks : commodities, markets, and uses. |date=2006 |publisher=Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration |location=Littleton, Colo. |isbn=9780873352338 |pages=990–991 |edition=7th |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zNicdkuulE4C |access-date=23 February 2022 |chapter=Titanium |editor-first1=James M. |editor-last1=Barker |editor-first2=Jessica Elzea |editor-last2=Kogel |editor-first3=Nikhil C. |editor-last3=Trivedi |editor-first4=Stanley T. |editor-last4=Krukowski}}</ref>

The proven reserves of ilmenite and rutile ore are estimated at between 423 and 600 million tonnes titanium dioxide. The largest ilmenite deposits are in South Africa, India, the United States, Canada, Norway, Australia, Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan. Additional deposits are found in Bangladesh, Chile, Mexico and New Zealand.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Güther |first1=V. |last2=Sibum |first2=H. |last3=Roidl |first3=O. |last4=Habashi |first4=F. |last5=Wolf |first5=H |year= 2005 |chapter=Titanium, Titanium Alloys, and Titanium Compounds |title=Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry |publisher=Wiley InterScience |isbn=978-3-527-30673-2}}</ref>

Australia was the world's largest ilmenite ore producer in 2011, with about 1.3 million tonnes of production, followed by South Africa, Canada, Mozambique, India, China, Vietnam, Ukraine, Norway, Madagascar and United States.

The top four ilmenite and rutile feedstock producers in 2010 were [[Rio Tinto Group]], [[Iluka Resources]], Exxaro and [[Kenmare Resources]], which collectively accounted for more than 60% of world's supplies.{{sfn|Hayes|2011|p=3}}

The world's two largest [[Open cast mining|open cast]] ilmenite mines are:
* The [[Tellnes mine]] located in [[Sokndal]], [[Norway]], and run by Titania AS (owned by Kronos Worldwide Inc.) with 0.55 Mtpa capacity and 57 Mt contained {{Chem|Ti||O|2}} reserves.
* The Rio Tinto Group's Lac Tio mine located near [[Havre Saint-Pierre]], Quebec in [[Canada]] with a 3 Mtpa capacity and 52 Mt reserves.<ref name="Lac Tio Page">{{cite web|title=Lac Tio Mine|url=http://www.infomine.com/minesite/minesite.asp?site=lactio|publisher=InfoMine|access-date=16 Aug 2012}}</ref>

Major mineral sands based ilmenite mining operations include: 
* [[Richards Bay Minerals]] in [[South Africa]], majority-owned by the Rio Tinto Group.
* [[Kenmare Resources]]' Moma mine in [[Mozambique]].
* Iluka Resources' mining operations in Australia including Murray Basin, [[Eneabba, Western Australia|Eneabba]] and [[Capel, Western Australia|Capel]].
* The Kerala Minerals & Metals Ltd (KMML), [[Indian Rare Earths Limited|Indian Rare Earths]] (IRE), VV Mineral mines in India.
* TiZir Ltd.'s Grande Cote mine in [[Senegal]]<ref name="MDL Website">{{cite web|title=TiZir Limited|url=http://www.mineraldeposits.com.au/tizir/|publisher=Mineral Deposits Limited|access-date=16 Aug 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120818182108/http://www.mineraldeposits.com.au/tizir/|archive-date=2012-08-18}}</ref>
* [[QIT Madagascar Minerals]] mine, majority-owned by the Rio Tinto Group, which began production in 2009 and is expected to produce 0.75 Mtpa of ilmenite, potentially expanding to 2 Mtpa in future phases.

Attractive major potential ilmenite deposits include:
* The Karhujupukka magnetite-ilmenite deposit in Kolari, northern [[Finland]] with around 5 Mt reserves and ore containing about 6.2% titanium.
* The Balla Balla magnetite-iron-titanium-vanadium ore deposit in the [[Pilbara]] of [[Western Australia]], which contains 456 million tonnes of [[cumulate rocks|cumulate]] ore horizon grading 45% {{Chem|Fe}}, 13.7% {{Chem|Ti||O|2}} and 0.64% {{Chem|V|2|O|5}}, one of the richest magnetite-ilmenite ore bodies in Australia<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.australianminesatlas.gov.au/aimr/commodity/vanadium.html |title = Vanadium - AIMR 2011 - Australian Mines Atlas}}</ref>
* The Coburn, WIM 50, Douglas, [[Pooncarie]] mineral sands deposits in [[Australia]].
* The Magpie titano-magnetite (iron-titanium-vanadium-chrome) deposits in eastern [[Quebec]] of [[Canada]] with about 1 billion tonnes containing about 43% Fe, 12% TiO<sub>2</sub>, 0.4% V<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub>, and 2.2% Cr<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>.
* The Longnose deposit in Northeast Minnesota is considered to be "the largest and richest ilmenite deposit in North America."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/05/26/titanium-range-breakthrough-could-lead-to-new-kind-of-mining-in-ne-minn-|title=Titanium Range? Breakthrough could lead to new kind of mining in NE Minn.|last=Kraker|first=Dan|access-date=2017-05-31}}</ref>

[[File:Worldwide mining of the titanium-containing minerals ilmenite and rutile.png|thumb|Worldwide mining of the titanium-containing minerals ilmenite and rutile in thousand tonnes of TiO2 equivalent by country, in 2020.]]

In 2020, [[China]] has by far the highest titanium mining activity. About 35 percent of the world’s ilmenite is mined in China, representing 33 percent of total titanium mineral mining (including ilmenite and rutile). [[South Africa]] and [[Mozambique]] are also important contributors, representing 13 percent and 12 percent of worldwide ilmenite mining, respectively. [[Australia]] represents 6 percent of the total ilmenite mining and 31 percent of rutile mining. [[Sierra Leone]] and [[Ukraine]] are also big contributors to rutile mining.<ref name=":0" />

China is the biggest producer of titanium dioxide, followed by the United States and Germany. China is also the leader in the production of titanium metal, but Japan, the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan have emerged as important contributors to this field.