Ukraine-based Group DF has announced that the output of ilmenite concentrate mined in 2020 at its subsidiaries - Valki Ilmenite and Mezhyrichensk Mining and Concentration Complex (Mezhyrichensk GOK) - is expected to amount to 120,000 mt, declining by 20 percent year on year.
“Despite the negative impact of the coronavirus crisis on the global titanium industry, resulting in particular in low prices, we have continued to carry out our production plans. By the end of 2020, all our orders are filled. According to the positive scenario, we expect the gradual recovery of the market by the spring of 2021,” Valki-Ilmenit and Mezhdurechensky GOK Companies chairman Sergey Kosenko commented.
In 2020, the company’s ilmenite concentrate sales structure remained the same, with 51 percent of material shipped to the domestic market and 49 percent exported to European customers.
Group DF is a diversified international group of companies, operating across Europe and Asia, with fertilizer and titanium businesses and gas distribution as the core areas of operations. Its titanium mining business includes two operating mining and beneficiation facilities (Mezhyrichensk GOK and Valki Ilmenite) and two mining and beneficiation facilities under construction (Stremigorodsky GOK and Motronovsky GOK), all based in Ukraine. The investments in the Motronovsky GOK project have already totaled about $145 million. The designed capacity of the enterprise is estimated at 120,000 mt of ilmenite concentrate, 14,000 mt of zirconium and 20,000 mt of rutile concentrate. Meanwhile, the company’s investment in the Stremigorodsky GOK project has exceeded UAH 100 million. Research and development works are currently being carried out at Stremigorodsky GOK.