QIT researchers have been endeavouring for years to find new ways to produce a more highly concentrated slag for the many titanium pigment producers that use the chloride process.

Such research first got underway in the 1960s, when a titanium pigment producer announced the development of a new chloride process. In 1977, QIT penetrated this burgeoning market by opening a subsidiary in South Africa: Richards Bay Minerals. A process developed by the QIT research team made it possible to extract a more highly concentrated titanium slag from a mineral sand deposit.

In the 1990s, faced with a rapidly expanding market of chloride-process pigment producers, QIT launched an intensive research program to come up with a suitable process for producing a more highly concentrated titanium slag from the Tio solid ilmenite deposit. The solution finally emerged, and the UGS process was created. In 1995, the project was ready for trials in the pilot plant, and two years were subsequently devoted to refining the process. By 1997, the technology was ready for large-scale production. The UGS process, QIT’s most recent innovation, has been pivotal in the company’s growth.