Sep, 6, Argex Titanium Inc. announced it has successfully completed the production scale up of high purity titanium dioxide (TiO2) at its pilot plant.

Production capacity has increased from 0.3 kg/day to 10kg/day, a 3,000% increase in production. As stated in earlier news releases, this was achieved in two stages. First, the 3 kg/day capacity plant was installed and tested. A new 10 kg/day capacity plant was then constructed in an adjacent building. The pilot plant is located at PRO in Mississauga, Ontario.

"This successful scale-up provides another affirmation of our CTL chemical technology process. The primary purposes of the scale-up were to decrease pilot plant operating costs and increase TiO2 production volume, thus permitting end-user sampling on a much larger scale for use in their paint production. We can now produce more than three tonnes of TiO2 per year from our Mississauga plant," said Enrico Di Cesare, COO & VP Technology for Argex. "Scalability was never an issue. The delays experienced in the scale-up of the pilot plant were due to delivery delays and minor – but necessary – design changes to the building. This will not be a factor in the construction of our industrial plant."

"This is a significant milestone for the company," said Roy Bonnell, President and CEO of Argex. "Our team is focused on actively pushing Argex to the next level and, with key and experienced personnel in place, I believe we will get there in short order."

The CTL process is a proprietary mineral extraction process that allows for the production of high purity (99.8% pure) pigment grade TiO2 product, which can then be sold to the end-users in the paint, plastic and coating industries.

The process is unique in that it produces high-purity TiO2 in a single location through a single process directly from the ore material. The equipment used in all parts of the process is known and readily available.

The process is also environmentally friendly due to its high energy efficiency, low emissions and its closed-loop design, which uses relatively low concentrations of hydrochloric acid that is regenerated after use in the process.