The Kerala Minerals & Metals Limited

🏭 minerals & metals📍 Kerala, India

About The Kerala Minerals & Metals Limited

Bringing more to your everyday life, KMML touches you in numerous ways. Be it the dress you wear, the cosmetics you use, the medicines you take, the paints you decorate your home with or the utility plastic products, our products are there. Eco-friendly & socially committed, we are the only integrated Titanium Dioxide facility having mining, mineral separation, synthetic rutile and pigment-production plants. Apart from producing rutile grade Titanium Dioxide pigment for various types of industries, we also produces other products like Illmenite, Rutile, Zircon, Sillimenite, Synthetic rutile etc. Manufacturing Titanium Dioxide through the chloride route, KMML produces very pure rutile grade Titanium dioxide pigment. The different grades churned out by KMML under brand name KEMOX has a ready market which asks for more. The commendable work in research by the R&D department has also helped KMML to add more colours to its portfolio. With continued growth and demand in the economy and industry, the products of KMML are being lapped up by the eager market. This has in turn set the wheels turning for KMML’s expansion. KMML has always been responsive to social and environmental causes. Some of the initiatives taken by KMML have made a significant change to the area and its people. KMML is now in the aerospace industry & Defence applications with the commissioning of the Titanium Sponge Plant. The TSP is a joint venture of KMML, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL). The Rs.143-crore TSP project was fully funded by the VSSC. With the inauguration of TSP, India became the 7th country in the world having the technology for producing titanium sponge, which is the raw material for titanium metal. Titanium sponge is known for its high strength but low weight, making it an ideal material for aircraft manufacture, including fighter aircraft. The material is also used in nuclear plants, Engine parts, Ocean platforms, Reactors, Heat Exchangers and to make dental implants and artificial bones.

Products

Monazite

minerals & metals

The mineral monazite is a reddish-brown phosphate containing rare earth metals and an important source of thorium, lanthanum, and cerium. Because of the presence of thorium within monazite, it can be radioactive. Due to the alpha decay of thorium and uranium, monazite contains significant amount of helium, which can be extracted by heating. The sands of Sankaramangalam in Kerala were found to contain several rare earths like Ilmenite, Zircon and Rutile. KMML is involved in the harvesting of these minerals from the seas, which are used as basic raw materials for a variety of industries. The Mineral Separation Unit (MS Unit) is engaged in the separation of Ilmenite, Rutile, Leucoxene, Monazite, Silliminite etc from the beach sand. The MS Unit employs Gravitational, Magnetic and High Tension Electrostatic Techniques for separation of minerals from the sand.

Titanium Tetra Chloride

minerals & metals

Titanium tetra Chloride (synonym – Tickle) is produced as an intermediary product in the production of rutile grade titanium dioxide pigment. It is colourless to pale yellow liquid. Titanium Tetra Chloride reacts violently on contact with water and expands to 1600 times its liquid volume on exposure creating smoke screen and thereby necessitate careful handling.

Ilmenite

minerals & metals

Ilmenite is a weakly magnetic titanium-iron oxide mineral which is iron-black or steel-gray. It is a crystalline iron titanium oxide (FeTiO3) with a hexagonal crystal system and a metallic lustre. The majority of the ilmenite mined is used as a raw material for pigment production. The product is titanium dioxide, which is ground into a fine powder and is a highly white substance used as a base in high-quality paint, paper and plastics applications. The sands of Sankaramangalam in Kerala were found to contain several rare earths like Ilmenite, Zircon and Rutile. KMML is involved in the harvesting of these minerals from the seas, which are used as basic raw materials for a variety of industries. The Mineral Separation Unit (MS Unit) is engaged in the separation of Ilmenite, Rutile, Leucoxene, Monazite, Silliminite etc from the beach sand. The MS Unit employs Gravitational, Magnetic and High Tension Electrostatic Techniques for separation of minerals from the sand. Raw Ilmenite is processed in various phases to arrive at the white pigment that is available to us as Titanium Dioxide (TiO2), which finds use in our every day life.