Products

Manganese ore is mined at our Bootu Creek mine, as well as our associate mine Tshipi Borwa.

Manganese is one of the most commonly used industrial metals in the world, with a long and established history. The first usage of manganese in steel production was recorded in the 18^th century, and steel cannot be made without manganese.  Today, over 90% of ore mined from the ground is eventually consumed by the steel industry. Before it can be used in steelmaking, it is first processed by smelting, a reduction process that transforms the oxides in raw ores into metallic ferroalloys. Other applications include batteries, aluminium, and the chemical industry.

High Carbon Ferromanganese (HC FeMn) and Silicomanganese (SiMn) are manganese alloys produced at our smelters located in Qinzhou and Sarawak.

Manganese alloys are a group of ferroalloys with manganese as the main alloying element. They are essential for the most basic form of steel making and serve to remove sulphur and oxygen from molten steel, at the same time improving physical properties such as hardness. Beyond crude steel, manganese can be used in high strength industrial manganese steels that contain up to 10-15% manganese. There are no known substitutes of manganese alloys, and manganese alloys cannot be recycled.

Ferrosilicon (FeSi) and refined grades of FeSi are silicon alloys produced at our Sarawak smelter.

Silicon alloys are a group of ferroalloys with silicon as the main alloying element. It is different from manganese alloys in that it consumes quartz (silicon dioxide) as a raw material. It is used to deoxidize molten steel for the production of crude steel. Silicon alloys also have a particular application in electrical steels, where silicon induces magnetic properties required in transformers. FeSi is also used in the industrial production of magnesium, which requires one metric ton of FeSi for every ton of magnesium. There are no known substitutes of silicon alloys, and silicon alloys cannot be recycled.