QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) is 80% owned by Rio Tinto and 20% owned by the Government of Madagascar.
On August 23, 2023, Rio Tinto and the Government of Madagascar reached agreement on the future fiscal arrangements for QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) and renewed their long-term partnership for the sustainable operation of the QMM mine in Fort Dauphin, Madagascar.
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Summary:
The heavy mineral sand deposit area extends over 70 km of the coastal zone surrounding Fort Dauphin. Three deposits of heavy mineral sands such as Mandena, Sainte Luce, and Petriky, have been identified within its boundaries.
The Mandena, Petriky and Sainte Luce heavy mineral sand deposits are located in the Fort-Dauphin region on the south-eastern tip of Madagascar.
The Fort-Dauphin beach sand placer is located in Flandrian Dunes surrounded by the Vohimena Mountains and the Indian Ocean in South-East of Madagascar Island. The placer contributes 2/3 of the total heavy mineral resources of this country.
In the studied region there are igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary formations. The igneous formation occupies majority part of the Fort-Dauphin region and consists of the Vohimena and the Anosyenne Mountains granitic complexes. The essential compositions of the granitic complex are charnockite and garnet - biotite granite with few dozen meter of lenses containing apatite-biotite, zircon and large crystal of monazite. The Anosyenne granite is composed of ilmenite, monazite and magnetite (Andriamanantena, 2008). The coastal sedimentary formation consists of heavy minerals transported from eroded Anosyenne granite. Due to the potassium feldspar alteration, greenish yellow color is observed along the formation (Lacroix, 1922). The metamorphic formation in this area is characterized by the banded gneiss with biotite, cordierite, spinel, sillimanite, garnet, orthoclase and plagioclase (Bazot, 1974). The placer is very rich in titanium mineral accompanied with minerals bearing natural radioactive and heavy elements.
The major minerals of the deposit are monazite, zircon, quartz, garnet, spinel, sillimanite as non-refractory minerals; ilmenite, anatase, rutile, titanite, leucoxene, pseudorutile and as a refractory one. The average concentration of the ilmenite, monazite, zircon and other minerals is 66.72%, 2.3%, 2.8%, and 28.18% respectively. Ilmenite contains 63 wt.% of TiO2, Zircon - 44 wt.% of ZrO2, Monazite contains 53 wt.% of oxide rare earth elements (REE) and up to 2 wt.% of UO2 and 9 wt.% of ThO2.