The Hindu Business Line : Titanium dioxide project

The article on Tata’s proposed titanium dioxide plant (Business Line, August 29) made interesting reading. As a chemical engineer with over three decades experience in designing and operating titanium dioxide projects, I feel the issue relating to the Tata group’s proposed plant in Tamil Nadu is not one of mere life-cycle assessment.

Tata group wants 10,000 acres of land for the production of titanium dioxide project of capacity one lakh tonnes per annum. For such a project, the requirement 10,000 acres is huge and unprecedented anywhere in the world for a project of similar size. Tata group is combining the manufacturing facilities along with mining facilities for ilmenite. This is not the practice in the industry worldwide. More than 90 per cent of the titanium dioxide projects around the world have no captive mining facilities. Considering that such a plan will cause serious humanitarian problems because of the displacement after land acquisition, the Tata group can consider setting up a titanium dioxide project without including mining facilities. In such a case, only 500 acres of land is required.

The group says that the extent of ilmenite available at the site is lower than in other sites in terms of depth of deposits, etc., and, therefore, a larger area of land is required. This argument does not provide adequate justification for acquiring such a large extent of land.

Further, for producing one lakh tonnes of titanium dioxide, only 2.2 lakh tonnes of ilmenite is required. Tata Group appears to be asking for an area of 10,000 acres largely for mining purposes. Perhaps the group plans to export surplus ilmenite and other minerals mined.

There is enough ilmenite being produced in Orissa by Indian Rare Earths, which is expanding its mining facilities. The mineral can be brought to Tuticorin from Orissa by coastal route comfortably. The mere life-cycle assessment to justify the titanium dioxide project without considering such basic issues, which call for technical auditing, would be underestimating the real implications of the project.

N. S. Venkataraman e-mail