INB Buena 

INB’s Unit installed in Buena, in the town of San Francisco Itabapoana (RJ), was created to operate in the extraction, separation process and marketing of heavy minerals known as ilmenite, zirconite, rutile and monazite.

With the depletion of reserves, INB has stopped all mineral extraction work. Currently, production is restricted to recovering ore that has been piled up on the yard next to the primary processing plant, and also to the various fractions of minerals that have been stored over the past years. The Buena Industrial Unit has 900 tonnes of monazite ready and packed and about 5,000 tonnes of monazite mixed with other heavy minerals within the company’s yard.

Ilmenite (iron titanate), zirconite (zirconium silicate) and rutile (titanium dioxide) are important inputs for a number of industries: ilmenite is used in the pigment industry, metal alloys and protection of blast furnace linings; zirconite is used in the ceramic industry; and rutile is used in ink manufacturing and in the welding electrode industry.