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.

The 1,036-acre (419 hectares) 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.

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.

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 are 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.

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.

The Bunbury Pigment Plant is made up of two sites – Kemerton and Australind. The Kemerton plant occupies a 55-hectare site that it shares with satellite plants supplying raw materials such as chlorine, caustic soda, gaseous oxygen and nitrogen. The Bunbury Pigment Plant produces TiO₂ through the chloride process, which uses chlorine to react with titanium-bearing ores.

Kemerton
869 Marriott Road, Kemerton Industrial Park 6233, Western Australia, Australia

Australind
139 Old Coast Road, Australind 6233, Western Australia, Australia

Northern Operations derives its feedstock from the Cooljarloo Mine in the Mid-West region of Western Australia. The heavy metal concentrate (HMC) is transported by road from the Cooljarloo Mine 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.

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.

P.O. Box 31 Dandaragan 6507 Western Australia, Australia

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 the site and then trucked to Broken Hill for further processing.

Ginkgo/Snapper Mine
Nob Road via Wentworth
Wentworth 2648, New South Wales, Australia

Broken Hill
138 Pinnicals Road, PO Box 444
Broken Hill 2880, New South Wales, Australia

Jiangxi Tikon Titanium Products 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. The synthetic rutile produced at the Tronox Chandala Processing site is sent to our Kwinana pigment plant to be converted through the chloride process into titanium dioxide.

At Wonnerup, Tronox mines ore deposits using dry-mining techniques before running it through a concentrator to produce heavy mineral concentrate (HMC). HMC is transported by road to the Northshore Processing Plant.

Wonnerup
Sues Road, Wonnerup 6280, Western Australia, Australia

Northshore
Lot 962 Koombana Drive Bunbury, 6230, Western Australia, Australia

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.

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 specialty 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.