Ilmenite

The mineral was first discovered in the Menaccan Valley in Cornwall (United Kingdom) and was described by William Gregor in 1791. It was initially named Menaccanit after its place of discovery.

The name Ilmenite, which remains valid to this day, was given to the mineral in 1827 by the mineralogist Adolph Theodor Kupffer. He determined that the mineral from Mount Ilmen in the Russian Ilmen Mountains was not titanite but a new compound.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, titanium dioxide was valued for its bright white pigment properties, leading to increased interest in ilmenite.

Commercial production of titanium dioxide from ilmenite began in 1916 in Fredrikstad, Norway, and almost simultaneously in the United States. The titanium dioxide pigment produced in the Norwegian plant increasingly replaced the previously common, health-hazardous lead sulfate as a white pigment and is still manufactured today under the name Kronos International.

In the 1940s, the development of the Kroll process enabled the extraction of titanium, which was prized by the aerospace and defense industries for its lightness and corrosion resistance. This led to increased mining of ilmenite.

Ilmenite can be converted into pigment-grade titanium dioxide either through the sulfate process or the chloride process. It can also be refined and purified into rutile-form titanium dioxide using the Becher process.

Ilmenite ores can be transformed into liquid iron and a titanium-rich slag through smelting processes.

Steel manufacturers use ilmenite ore as a flux for the refractory lining of blast furnaces.
Through aluminothermic reduction, ilmenite can be used to produce ferrotitanium.

The global ilmenite production amounts to around 10 million tonnes annually.

The most important producers include China, with approximately 3.5 million tonnes per year, Mozambique with about 1.5 million tonnes, and South Africa with an estimated 1.2 million tonnes.

Lac Tio in Canada is the largest solid ilmenite deposit in the world and is mined by Rio Tinto.

Tellnes in Norway is one of the largest ilmenite mines worldwide, operated by Kronos International, one of the leading titanium dioxide producers.