Titanium for Aircraft?
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Titanium for Aircraft?
Transkei titanium offers potential jobs - at a cost
October 19, 2007
By Donwald Pressly
Cape Town - The titanium mining industry is poised for a major boost as the government promises to encourage local beneficiation to supply global aircraft companies with components.
The downside is that the environmentally sensitive Transkei coastline, rich in the mineral, would be disrupted.
MRC Resources, a local subsidiary of the Australian firm Minerals Commodities, is awaiting a mining rights licence from the department of minerals and energy to unlock a multibillion-rand business.
The inaccessible Transkei coast is reported to be rich in the mineral, which looks like oil streaks in the sea sand along the lush and largely unspoilt coastline.
Science and technology director-general Phil Mjwara said South Africa was looking closely at Boeing's use of titanium products, which were light but as strong as steel products.
Mjwara said Boeing's 787 aircraft had about 20 percent titanium products and the economics cluster departments - including trade and industry, minerals and energy and his department - were keen to promote the metal and its local beneficiation.
He said: "We have the raw material on the east coast," a clear reference to Xolobeni in the Transkei.
He said his department was also talking with Mintek and the CSIR about the beneficiation process.
Tshediso Matona, the director-general of the department of trade and industry, referred to the need for a smelter close to a port so that the products could be easily exported.
John Barnes, MRC Resources' general manager of a greenfields project near Vredendal in the Western Cape and the proposed project at Xolobeni, said plans were still in place to build a smelter in East London, but this depended on his company gaining the mining licence.
Barnes said titanium products at present were largely directed at providing titanium dioxide for the paint industry.
Richards Bay Minerals, which is co-owned by Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, had a mine in northern Kwazulu-Natal and had been mining for 30 years, he said.
Anglo American was involved in an operation in Vredendal. Another Australian Company, Ticor, which has a joint venture agreement with Kumba Resources, was involved in mining at Empangeni. These operations largely produced an ore with low titanium concentration known as ilmenite .
It was reported in April this year that Minerals Commodities, which is listed on the Australian stock exchange, had applied to the South African government for the rights to mine titanium deposits worth R11 billion on the Pondoland coast. The firm said at the time that the project would create 300 direct jobs and would fast-track infrastructure roll-out in the deeply rural area.
Environmentalists, however, warned that mining would destroy the region's ecotourism potential while bringing few long-term benefits
October 19, 2007
By Donwald Pressly
Cape Town - The titanium mining industry is poised for a major boost as the government promises to encourage local beneficiation to supply global aircraft companies with components.
The downside is that the environmentally sensitive Transkei coastline, rich in the mineral, would be disrupted.
MRC Resources, a local subsidiary of the Australian firm Minerals Commodities, is awaiting a mining rights licence from the department of minerals and energy to unlock a multibillion-rand business.
The inaccessible Transkei coast is reported to be rich in the mineral, which looks like oil streaks in the sea sand along the lush and largely unspoilt coastline.
Science and technology director-general Phil Mjwara said South Africa was looking closely at Boeing's use of titanium products, which were light but as strong as steel products.
Mjwara said Boeing's 787 aircraft had about 20 percent titanium products and the economics cluster departments - including trade and industry, minerals and energy and his department - were keen to promote the metal and its local beneficiation.
He said: "We have the raw material on the east coast," a clear reference to Xolobeni in the Transkei.
He said his department was also talking with Mintek and the CSIR about the beneficiation process.
Tshediso Matona, the director-general of the department of trade and industry, referred to the need for a smelter close to a port so that the products could be easily exported.
John Barnes, MRC Resources' general manager of a greenfields project near Vredendal in the Western Cape and the proposed project at Xolobeni, said plans were still in place to build a smelter in East London, but this depended on his company gaining the mining licence.
Barnes said titanium products at present were largely directed at providing titanium dioxide for the paint industry.
Richards Bay Minerals, which is co-owned by Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, had a mine in northern Kwazulu-Natal and had been mining for 30 years, he said.
Anglo American was involved in an operation in Vredendal. Another Australian Company, Ticor, which has a joint venture agreement with Kumba Resources, was involved in mining at Empangeni. These operations largely produced an ore with low titanium concentration known as ilmenite .
It was reported in April this year that Minerals Commodities, which is listed on the Australian stock exchange, had applied to the South African government for the rights to mine titanium deposits worth R11 billion on the Pondoland coast. The firm said at the time that the project would create 300 direct jobs and would fast-track infrastructure roll-out in the deeply rural area.
Environmentalists, however, warned that mining would destroy the region's ecotourism potential while bringing few long-term benefits
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Titanium is great when your being shot at, the cockpit of the A10 is a tube of titanium
quote
All of the A-10's glass is bulletproof and the cockpit itself is surrounded by a heavy tub of titanium. Titanium armor protects both the pilot and critical areas of the flight control system. This titanium "bathtub" can survive direct hits from armor-piercing and high explosive projectiles up to 37mm in size. The front windscreen can withstand up to a 23mm projectile. Fire retardant foam protects the fuel cells which are also self sealing in the event of puncture.
quote
All of the A-10's glass is bulletproof and the cockpit itself is surrounded by a heavy tub of titanium. Titanium armor protects both the pilot and critical areas of the flight control system. This titanium "bathtub" can survive direct hits from armor-piercing and high explosive projectiles up to 37mm in size. The front windscreen can withstand up to a 23mm projectile. Fire retardant foam protects the fuel cells which are also self sealing in the event of puncture.
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Have a titanium watch. both case and band are titanium and they are as light as..
Other items I know that are titanium are the Blackhawk main rotor blade damper bolts, main rotor pitch change bolds and most of the bolts holding the tail rotor together.
Think also the AH-64 main rotor head has titanium damping straps on the main rotor or something similar.
Oh yea, and the Saab 340/2000 hydraulic tubing is also titanium.
Titanium is just plain good stuff for aviation types.
Other items I know that are titanium are the Blackhawk main rotor blade damper bolts, main rotor pitch change bolds and most of the bolts holding the tail rotor together.
Think also the AH-64 main rotor head has titanium damping straps on the main rotor or something similar.
Oh yea, and the Saab 340/2000 hydraulic tubing is also titanium.
Titanium is just plain good stuff for aviation types.
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Russian aircraft have huge amounts of titanium in their construction. Especially in cargo floors of aircraft like the Antonov AN124. The whole floor is titanium. No floor limits. Some years back, I think in 1991, the first AN124 arrived in SA and was parked at Safair, along with the Concord. I was employed by Safair at that time and watched the cargo people from the then Safair cargo load this aircraft with forklifts. They drove onto the aircraft with three or four forklifts at a time carrying full loads on the forks. The floor was jumping up behind the moving forklifts and looked like waves on a river but the Russian crew of the aircraft were completely unfazed and did not intervene. Seems there was no problem and they informed me then there are no floor limits due to the titanium floor installed. Titanium is hellishly expensive and scarce in the Western world, but apparently freely available in Russia in huge quantities. Before the Powers That Be decide to destroy a beautiful part of the country to line their own pockets again I think the Green Squad needs to get busy to block this. I wander what Kortbroek V Schalkwyk has to say about this? They forced people to remove holiday homes from this area because it was ecologically sensitive and now they want to mine the same area. If Russia genuinely has so much freely available then let the world go and buy from them. They sell off nuclear technology at dirt cheap prices to dictators and despots, I'm sure they wont mind selling titanium to Boeing.
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Russian aircraft have huge amounts of titanium in their construction. Especially in cargo floors of aircraft like the Antonov AN124. The whole floor is titanium. No floor limits. Some years back, I think in 1991, the first AN124 arrived in SA and was parked at Safair, along with the Concord. I was employed by Safair at that time and watched the cargo people from the then Safair cargo load this aircraft with forklifts. They drove onto the aircraft with three or four forklifts at a time carrying full loads on the forks. The floor was jumping up behind the moving forklifts and looked like waves on a river but the Russian crew of the aircraft were completely unfazed and did not intervene. Seems there was no problem and they informed me then there are no floor limits due to the titanium floor installed. Titanium is hellishly expensive and scarce in the Western world, but apparently freely available in Russia in huge quantities. Before the Powers That Be decide to destroy a beautiful part of the country to line their own pockets again I think the Green Squad needs to get busy to block this. I wander what Kortbroek V Schalkwyk has to say about this? They forced people to remove holiday homes from this area because it was ecologically sensitive and now they want to mine the same area. If Russia genuinely has so much freely available then let the world go and buy from them. They sell off nuclear technology at dirt cheap prices to dictators and despots, I'm sure they wont mind selling titanium to Boeing.
[QUOTE]
Titanium ore isn´t that rare, exist in Sweden and India among other places,
cost is to refine the ore, enormous amount of energy is needed. Boeing needs a lot of it and at long contracts so they´re heavy involved in Russia.
[QUOTE]
Titanium ore isn´t that rare, exist in Sweden and India among other places,
cost is to refine the ore, enormous amount of energy is needed. Boeing needs a lot of it and at long contracts so they´re heavy involved in Russia.
