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.

The Fairbreeze deposit is hosted by deeply weathered “Berea-type” sands which are mined using a combination of track dozers and a hydraulic mining technique.

During 2016 & 1st half of 2017, the mining rate using the hydraulic method was constrained to +/- 900 tph (approximately 60% of required tonnage). During the 2nd half of 2017, Tronox implemented the use of earth moving equipment to mechanically break the hard layers in the orebody before hydraulic mining. This improved the mining rate to approximately 1 100 tph. An increase in dozing times by using mechanical mining on a 24/7 basis at C Extension is expected to further improve production by about 30%. [06/12/2019 Presentation, Environmental Management Programme, p.12]

Primary mining method: Hydraulic mining
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. [2016 Form 10-K, p.8]

Secondary mining method
Use of earth moving equipment (excavators, bulldozers, dump trucks) for certain activities:
• Bush clearing and topsoil stripping
• Stripping barren areas in orebody
• Rehabilitation - once area mined and filled with sand tailings: shaping, covering with layer of reconstituted soil and topsoil and vegetating. [06/12/2019 Presentation, Environmental Management Programme, p.11]

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 reh ........