About Us:Global Locations

The heavy minerals concentrate from KZN Sands Fairbreeze Mine is transported to the Central Processing Complex in Empangeni, where it is fed into arc furnaces to form TiO₂ slag and pig iron.

Date facilities began operation:
CPC commissioned in 2001

Products/services (capacity):
Rutile (30,000 MT)
Slag (220,000 MT)
Zircon (60,000 MT)
Pig Iron (121,000 MT)

Approximate number of employees (CPC/Smelter and Fairbreeze Mine):
660

Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality:
KZN Sands has ISO 900:2008, and ISO 14001:2004 certifications for opencast mining and beneficiation of heavy minerals, issued by the International Organization for Standardization. It also maintains ISO 17025:2005 accreditation for chemical and physical analysis, which demonstrates technical competency for a defined scope and the operation of a laboratory quality management system.

The 1,036-acre (419 hectare) Fairbreeze mine in KwaZulu-Natal, on the east coast of South Africa, delivered its first load of titanium-rich ore in late 2015. Fairbreeze produces high-quality ilmenite to feed the smelters at Tronox KZN Sands Central Processing Complex (CPC), as well as zircon, rutile, and other mining co-products. The heavy minerals concentrate from Fairbreeze is transported to the CPC in Empangeni where it is fed into arc furnaces to form TiO₂ slag and pig iron.

Date facilities began operation:
Fairbreeze Mine commissioned in 2015

Products/services (capacity):
Rutile (30,000 MT)
Slag (220,000 MT)
Zircon (60,000 MT)
Pig Iron (121,000 MT)

Approximate number of employees (CPC/Smelter and Fairbreeze Mine):
660

Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality:
KZN Sands has ISO 900:2008, and ISO 14001:2004 certifications for opencast mining and beneficiation of heavy minerals, issued by the International Organization for Standardization. It also maintains ISO 17025:2005 accreditation for chemical and physical analysis, which demonstrates technical competency for a defined scope and the operation of a laboratory quality management system.

Tronox’s Namakwa Sands operations are located on the western cape of South Africa. Namakwa employees use dry mining techniques and upgrade heavy minerals to produce titanium dioxide feedstock suitable for both the chloride and sulphate TiO₂ processes. Namakwa Sands also produces zircon, rutile and pig iron. The operation begins with an open-pit mine and concentration plants at Brand-se-Baai, about 385km north of Cape Town. Once Tronox has separated the ore into ilmenite, natural rutile and zircon, rail trucks transport the products 270km to our Smelter at Saldanha Bay.

Date facilities began operation:
1994

Products/services (capacity):
Rutile (31,000 MT)
Slag (190,000 MT)
Zircon (135,000 MT)
Pig Iron (100,000 MT)

Approximate of employees (Northern Operations and Smelter):
1,040

Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality:
Both Namakwa Sands sites have ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications for quality and environmental management, respectively. Their OHSAS 18001 accreditation indicates that they also meet or exceed the minimum requirements for occupational health and safety management best practices, according to the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series.

Ilmenite, natural rutile and zircon are transported to the Smelter by rail from an open-pit mine and concentration plant in Brand-se-Baai. The ilmenite is processed in furnaces to produce saleable titanium dioxide slag and pig iron, while the zircon and natural rutile is stored on site for export. Final products are dispatched globally to either Tronox’s pigment operations or third-party customers either in bulk, bags or containers via the port of Saldanha – 150 kilometers north of Cape Town. Namakwa Sands products also support other South African industries.

Date facilities began operation:
1994

Products/services (capacity):
Rutile (31,000 MT)
Slag (190,000 MT)
Zircon (135,000 MT)
Pig Iron (100,000 MT)

Approximate of employees (Northern Operations and Smelter):
1,040

Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality:
Both Namakwa Sands sites have ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications for quality and environmental management, respectively. Their OHSAS 18001 accreditation indicates that they also meet or exceed the minimum requirements for occupational health and safety management best practices, according to the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series.

The plant in Bahia is located on the northern coast of the state, close to Arembepe, and 20 km from Salvador, in an area of 837-hectares. It is the only integrated plant for TiO₂ in South America, and it produces the titanium dioxide pigment via the sulfate process, which uses sulfuric acid in order to extract the TiO₂ from the mineral. The base pigment is then transformed into the final product, with performance characteristics that are specific to each application, through a process that involves a surface treatment with various chemical products and a combination of milling and micronizing.

Approximate number of employees:
350

Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality:
The Bahia Plant has ISO:9001 certification.

Acquired in 1967 from American Potash and Chemical, Tronox’s Hamilton Plant has a long history of providing quality products for global customers. With more than 60 years of operational success, Hamilton’s titanium dioxide (TiO₂) manufacturing operation is our largest TiO₂ plant and one of Mississippi’s biggest industrial operations. Hamilton employs a multiple-line chloride configuration which results in higher capacity utilization. Hamilton and its 418 employees work closely with customers to optimize their formulations and enhance TiO₂ use in production processes.

Date facilities began operation:
Sodium Chlorate in 1958 (closed 2015)
Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂) Pigment in 1965

Products/services capacity:
Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂) Pigment (225,000 MT)

Approximate number of employees:
425

Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality:
Hamilton is ISO 9001 certified for quality management from the International Organization for Standardization. It is also a Voluntary Protection Programs Star site, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which means that the facility meets and exceeds work safety guidelines and protocol.

OKC employees are actively engaged in research and development activities for Tronox. Facility scientists and engineers work closely with our customers, manufacturing locations, and sales team.

Date facility began operation:
August 1963

Approximate number of employees:
110

The mine is located in Northeastern Brazil, in the municipality of Mataraca, about 1,100 km from the Bahia plant, to which it ships the minerals to be transformed into the TiO₂ pigment. The mining operation occupies 1,050 hectares and comprises a floating plant and dredge, which perform the extraction of the ilmenite (a titanium ore) and of zirconite, rutile and cyanite (used in the ceramic, welding, high precision casting and refractions industries), as well as four fixed production plants.

Approximate number of employees:
160

Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality:
The mine at Paraíba has ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001:2004, OHSAS 18001:2007 and NBR 16001:2012 certifications, and has developed a program for environmental revitalization that is nationally recognized.

Tronox’s Australian operations are located in Western Australia. Tronox mines ore deposits using dredging techniques before running it through a concentrator to produce heavy mineral concentrate (HMC). HMC is transported by road to the Chandala Processing Plant, which includes a dry mill, a synthetic rutile plant and a residue management plant. Zircon, rutile and leucoxene are either bagged or sold in bulk. Ilmenite is further processed into synthetic rutile using reduction, aeration and acid leaching.

Date facilities began operation:
1989

Products/services (capacity):
Rutile (36,000 MT)
Synthetic Rutile (220,000 MT)
Zircon (70,000 MT)
Leucoxene (26,000 MT)

Approximate number of employees (Chandala and Cooljarloo):
275

Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality:
Chandala’s laboratory is ISO 17025:2005 certified for the general requirements relating to the competence to carry out tests and/or calibrations using standard methods, non-standard methods, and laboratory-developed methods. The lab is also accredited by the Australian Association of Testing Authorities (NATA).

Tronox’s Australian operations are located in Western Australia. Northern Operations derives its feedstock from the Cooljarloo Mine in the Mid-West region of Western Australia. At Cooljarloo, Tronox mines ore deposits using dredging techniques before running it through a concentrator to produce heavy mineral concentrate (HMC). HMC is transported by road to the Chandala Processing Plant

Date facilities began operation:
1989

Products/services (capacity):
Rutile (36,000 MT)
Synthetic Rutile (220,000 MT)
Zircon (70,000 MT)
Leucoxene (26,000 MT)

Approximate number of employees (Chandala and Cooljarloo):
275

Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality:
Cooljarloo has ISO 14001 environmental certification from the International Organization for Standardization.

Tronox presently has two operating mines in the Murray Basin. Dredge mining has been in operation at the Ginkgo mine near Pooncarie since December 2005. Surface mining commenced at the nearby Snapper mine in 2010 with the second dredge commencing at Snapper in January 2011. The ore is initially concentrated at site and then trucked to Broken Hill for further processing.

Approximate number of employees:
160

Jiangxi Tikon Titanium Porducts Co., Ltd (Tikon) is Tronox’s sulfate rutile titanium dioxide factory, formerly owned by Cristal, located in Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province, China. As a leading white pigment manufacturer, Tronox operates a technically advanced facility which produces high quality rutile pigment for use in the coatings, paper and plastics industries.
Approximate number of employees: 734

Tronox’s Australian operations are located near Perth in the state of Western Australia. The location’s mineral sands operations – “Northern Operations” – combine with the Kwinana Pigment Plant to form the world’s largest integrated titanium dioxide project. Tronox’s employees in Western Australia manage nearly the full extent of the TiO₂ industry’s value chain, from the exploration of mine sites to the conversion of titanium feedstock into finished pigment. Of the 220,000 metric tons of synthetic rutile produced each year at the Tronox Chandala Processing site, approximately 70 percent is sent to our Kwinana pigment plant to be converted through the chloride process into titanium dioxide, while the remainder is sent to other Tronox pigment plants or to third parties.

Date facilities began operation:
August 1991

Products/services (capacity):
Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂) Pigment (150,000 MT)

Approximate number of employees:
320

Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality:
Kwinana is ISO 9001:2015 certified for quality management from the International Organization for Standardization. The plant is ISO 14001:2015 certified for environmental management. Kwinana also meets Australian/New Zealand safety standard AS/NZS 4801:2001 for occupational health and safety management.

Tronox’s mining and mineral separation operations, formerly owned by Cristal, are located in the South West region of Western Australia and the Murray Basin region in eastern Australia.
Wonnerup is the 20th mine established by Tronox’s subsidiary Cable Sands (WA) Pty Ltd, which has been operating in WA’s South-West since 1956. Mining has been underway at Wonnerup since May 2013 after completion of a three-year approval process. The Wonnerup project, which is located on Sues Road 10 km east of Busselton, has produced over 480,000 tonnes of heavy mineral concentrate.

Approximate number of employees:
110

Tronox’s Rotterdam Botlek facility is the only titanium dioxide producer in the Netherlands. Centrally located along the largest harbor in Europe, the site began production in 1960 as one of the first chemical companies in the area. Tronox’s predecessor, Kerr-McGee, acquired the operation from Kemira in April 2000. Botlek produces TiO₂ using Tronox’s proprietary chloride process. The plant brings a strong focus to maximizing the efficient use of raw materials, chemicals and energy. Its presence in the Rotterdam industrial complex, one of the largest in the world, creates unique opportunities for cooperation between plants that can result in improvements that would not be possible on a stand-alone basis.

Date facilities began operation:
1962

Products/services (capacity):
Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂) Pigment (90,000 MT)

Approximate number of employees:
260

Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality:
Botlek has ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001: 2004 certifications for the manufacture and supply of titanium dioxide pigments to home and export markets, issued by the International Organization for Standardization.

The Stallingborough Plant, formerly owned by Cristal, is one of nine manufacturing plants producing titanium dioxide (TiO₂) for Tronox, the world’s second-largest producer of TiO₂. TiO₂ is a bright white powder made from titanium ore that has the ability to pigment virtually any material. It makes possible the opacity, brightness and durability in paint formulas that have made modern paints more cost efficient, easier to use and friendlier to the environment. TiO₂ also gives plastics and rubber opacity and whiteness. It is used in such diverse products as printing inks, paper, ceramics, glass, leather, synthetic fibres and colours formulated for art paints.

Approximate number of employees:
375

In 1922, the Thann Plant became the first in the world to produce TiO₂. The plant produces TiO₂ through a sulfate-based process, a wet chemical process that uses sulfuric acid to extract and purify TiO₂ in anatase crystal form. The raw pigment is then finished into a product with specific performance characteristics for particular end-use applications, essentially in the paper, paint, plastic and rubber markets. Specialty and high-performance TiO₂ products produced at Thann include titanium tetrachloride that is used in the manufacture of TiO₂, in the automotive industry (pearlescent pigments for automotive paints) and also as a catalyst in the chemical industry. Another product, ultrafine TiO₂, is primarily used to improve our environment (air and water pollution control) and in the design of self-cleaning surfaces (photocatalysis).

Approximate number of employees:
225

Advanced technology was the driving force in the establishment of Tronox’s Yanbu Plant, formerly owned by Cristal, back in 1989 to produce titanium dioxide using the chloride process. This was at a time when the titanium industry was nonexistent in the Middle East. Commissioning started in 1991 and the first marketable quality was produced in April 1992.

Approximate number of employees:
675

Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality:
The Yanbu Plant has ISO:9001 and ISO:14001 certifications.