Richards Bay plant to make pearly whites from industrial slag

It’s hard to avoid references to a phoenix while thinking about a deal being inked on Tuesday that will turn industrial waste into a pearly white pigment … and put hundreds of people to work. A technology partnership between Johannesburg-based Nyanza Light Metals and Avertana of New Zealand will lead to the construction of a R4-billion plant in Richards Bay where titanium dioxide pigment (TiO2) will be produced from slag. But, unlike the beautiful bird born from ashes, this is not mythical.