Resumen de RBM zircon customers ‘told to expect delays, no guarantees on Q4 volumes’
Worker protests and a furnace accident cut production at Rio Tinto’s Richards Bay Minerals operations, and some customers have been warned that there might be no further supplies of zircon this year.
Customers purchasing zircon from Rio Tinto’s South African Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) operations have been told to expect delays and that purchased volumes were not guaranteed, they claimed.
One customer was informed that orders were “not guaranteed in terms of volume” and that orders could be delayed by two to three weeks, he told Industrial Minerals. To remedy this, RBM has started to offer standard grades in place of premium grades for some customers, he added.
Another customer told Industrial Minerals that fourth-quarter “allocations of zircon would be cut greatly” and that there “could also be no supplies of zircon” during the final three months of the year.
