Titanium dioxide is also the raw materials for paints and dyes used to color textiles, artists', colors, foodstuffs, paper, plastics, and cosmetics, Rutile and synthetic Rutile are also processed to titanium metal, a light strong and durable metal essential to the aerospace industries. The many varied properties of zircon enable its use in factories, boundaries, other industrial applications, and most importantly in the ceramics industry both in high technology uses as well as in everyday ceramic tiles. Zirconium compounds are used in television sets, high temperature work, in leather tanning and fabric water-proofing, paints, lacquers, inks drugs, cosmetics, deodorants, and as precipitants and catalysts in chemical process. Two methods of dry mining and dredging. In dry mining operations RGC uses scrapers and a bucketwheel excavator to collect ore for processing in contractors.
Dredges work in artificial ponds, pumping ore in slurry form to floating concentrators.
This method is more economical than dry mining, allowing lower grade of ore to be mined. Dry mining is necessary where deposits are shallow, complex, contain hard indurated bands, or consist of a number of unconnected orebodies. Dredging is the only practical method when the deposit lies below the natural water table. The mining process begins with the removal of topsoil and overburdens, which are stored for rehabilitation. Ore is fed into a screening system to remove any rocks, then fed into spiral gravity concentrators where the valuable heavier minerals are separated from lighter silica sand.