Saudi Arabia: The National Industrialization Company (Tasnee) plans to start commercial titanium slag production at its Ilmenite Smelter Project site in the Jazan Economic City in the first half of 2017. Commercial production will follow the project’s trial start-up in the second half of 2016. The announcement delays previous project dates due to the scale of the project and safety and quality issues.

Tasnee was unable to predict the impact the project will have upon its financial results due to the ‘current status of the titanium industry’. The project is a joint-venture between Tasnee and its subsidiary Cristal.

Sweden: Boliden is interested in extracting vanadium from slag heaps owned by SSAB. The mining and smelting company has reportedly been interested in this process for several years and has developed an extraction method. Boliden was due to be updated on the matter by SSAB in March 2016, according to Esmerk Swedish News.

However, Finnish company Mustavaaran Kaivos is considered the most likely to cooperate with SSAB. The company plans to relaunch vanadium extraction in Finland, and has developed a high temperature method. The development has been supported by SSAB, Swedish research foundation Mistra, Swedish mining company LKAB and Finnish steel company Rautaruukki.

Indonesia: Krakatau Semen is set to start producing ground granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) at its Cilegon plant by December 2016. The joint venture between Krakatau Steel and Semen Indonesia is due to produce 300,000t/yr of slag powder, according to Bisnis Indonesia. The company has invested US$36m into building the plant. Construction started in 2014.

US: A site where Orcem California plans to build a US$50m slag grinding plant has been added to the Vallejo heritage list potentially adding planning complications to the project. Dina Tasini, the north Californian city’s planning manager, said that any possible future plans for the site must first receive a certificate of appropriateness, according to the Vallejo Times-Herald.

Orcem California, a subsidiary of Ecocem, is proposing to build and operate a slag grinding plant on the former General Mills flour mill site near to the Vallejo Marine Terminal. However, the project faces opposition from local environmental groups.