The Fairbreeze paleo dune complex is an elongated body extending south-southwestward from the town of Mtunzini for about 12 kilometers, reaching a maximum width of about two kilometers and a maximum elevation of 109 meters. Surface drainages have dissected the deposit into five discrete ore bodies, Fairbreeze A, B, C, C-Extension and D. The deposit is hosted by fine-grained sand and silt in a north-northeast trending complex of strandline/paleo dune couplets two kilometers inland from the modem coastline.

Fairbreeze is part of a regional near-shore, coast-parallel corridor of terraces and dunes composed of reddish-colored sands, the “Berea Red Sands,” along the southeastern coast of Africa from Durban to Mombasa. As with most heavy mineral sand deposits, iron-titanium oxides, rutile, zircon and other heavy minerals in the HM assemblage at Fairbreeze are inherited from their source rock provenance and modified by selective sorting during deposition. The Natal Metamorphic Province and younger rift-related basalts are interpreted as the primary source for the Fairbreeze heavy minerals. Terrestrial weathering of terrace deposits to oxidize iron minerals, followed by a period of extensive reworking of coastal sediment by static sea levels completed the formation of the Fairbreeze deposit.

Hydraulic Mining - At our Fairbreeze mine in KZN, we employ a hydraulic mining method for mineral sands due to the topography of the ore body and the ore characteristics. A jet of high-pressure water is aimed at the mining face, thereby cutting into and loosening the sand so that it collapses on the floor. The water acts as a carrier medium for the sand, due to the high fines (mineral particles that are too fine to be economically extracted and other materials that remain after the valuable fraction of an ore has been separated from the uneconomic fraction) content contained in the ore body. The slurry generated by the hydraulic monitors flows to a collection sump where oversize material is removed and the slurry is then pumped to the primary concentration plant.

Heavy mineral concentrate from the Fairbreeze mine, located about 45 km south of Richards Bay, are separated into valuable co-products at our Central Processing Complex (CPC) at Empangeni, about 20 km west of Richards Bay. llmenite is fed to a dual-furnace electric arc smelter. Titanium slag and pig iron from the smelter and valuable mineral concentrates are exported from Richards Bay, one of the world’s largest bulk shipping ports.

Processing - Both wet and dry mining techniques utilize wet concentrator plants to produce a high grade of heavy mineral concentrate (typically approximately 90% to 98% heavy mineral content). Screened ore is first deslimed, a process by which slimes are separated from larger particles of minerals, and then washed through a series of spiral separators that use gravity to separate the heavy mineral sands from lighter materials, such as quartz. Residue from the concentration process is pumped back into either the open pits or slimes dams for rehabilitation and water recovery. Water used in the process is recycled into a clean water dam with any additional water requirements made up from pit dewatering or rainfall.

Mineral Separation - The non-magnetic (zircon and rutile) and magnetic (ilmenite) concentrates are passed through a dry separation process, known as the “dry mill” to separate out the minerals. Electrostatic and dry magnetic methods are used to further separate the ilmenite, rutile and zircon. Electrostatic separation relies on the difference in surface conductivity of the materials to be separated. Conductive minerals (such as ilmenite, rutile and leucoxene) behave differently from non-conductive minerals (such as zircon) when subjected to electrical forces. Magnetic separation techniques are dependent on the iron content of a mineral. Magnetic minerals (such as ilmenite) will separate from non-magnetic minerals (such as rutile and leucoxene) when subjected to a magnetic field. A combination of gravity and magnetic separation is used to separate zircon from the non-magnetic portion of the heavy mineral concentrate. The heavy mineral concentrate at KZN Sands and Namakwa Sands is passed through wet high-intensity magnetic separation to produce a non-magnetic fraction and a magnetic fraction.