Resumen de Iluka halts Jacinth-Ambrosia operation but swings back to profit for 2015

Siobhan Lismore-Scott, Laura Syrett

• Iluka has 800,000 tonnes concentrate in inventory currently at its Jacinth-Ambrosia operation, which is in the Eucla Basin. Citi Group analyst, Clarke Wilkins, said "including [Jacinth-Ambrosia] concentrate that has already been transported to Western Australia (WA), we estimate that there is about 950,000 tonnes of heavy mineral concentrate (...) that can be processed through the WA or Murray Basin dry plants to maintain finished production through the (...) shutdown." "If Metalysis can commercially produce titanium metal powder direct from rutile and synthetic rutile, at materially lower cost than current technologies, then a dramatic expansion in demand for titanium metal and titanium alloys could be expected," Iluka's managing director, David Robb, said on announcing that it had upped its stake in the company.

  "Iluka believes now is the time to secure and develop options -- conventional and innovative, organic and inorganic -- consistent with its objective," Robb added in Iluka's earning statement. "The company therefore has a bias towards the deployment of capital."