{"id":27477,"date":"2026-03-02T13:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=27477"},"modified":"2026-03-02T13:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:36:17","slug":"rio-tinto-to-restart-473-mln-sa-mineral-sands-project","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rio-tinto-to-restart-473-mln-sa-mineral-sands-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Rio Tinto to restart $473 mln SA mineral sands project"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\">Rio Tinto has approved the restart of Richards Bay Minerals&#8217; $473 million Zulti South project in South Africa (SA), the company said on Monday, six years after halting the venture due to community unrest.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\nRichards Bay Minerals, 74%-owned by Rio Tinto, mines the mineral-rich sands of South Africa&#8217;s KwaZulu-Natal province, extracting mostly zircon, rutile, ilmenite and titanium oxide used in the manufacture of paint, sunscreen and smartphones.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">The Zulti South project is key to Richards Bay Minerals&#8217; plans to extend the life of its operations to 2050 as the ore body at Zulti North declines, the company said in a statement.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The decision to proceed also reflects improved security conditions and strengthened community partnerships,&#8221; Richards Bay Minerals Managing Director Werner Duvenhage said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>China Harbour Engineering Company has been appointed as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Construction is scheduled to start during the first quarter of 2026, with initial commercial production expected in the fourth quarter of 2028.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13986,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-27477","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"China Harbour Engineering Company has been appointed as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project.","published_date":"","news_description":"China Harbour Engineering Company has been appointed as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27478,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27477\/revisions\/27478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=27477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}