Mining and Milling Ore for Titanium Dioxide 1954 National Lead Company

The initial discovery of the rare mineral deposit in India was on the western coast as placer deposits on beaches near Kollam, north of the capital city, Thiruvananthapuram in the coastal state of Kerala, India. Production of titanium dioxide commenced on these beaches in 1951.   In the year 1909, the presence of the mineral monazite was observed in coir, a coconut fiber, shipped to Germany from India. He traced back to the place from where the coir was exported and this lead to the discovery of the deposits on the western coast of India, in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore. As thorium nitrate, a chemical produced from the mineral monazite was in good demand at that time for the production of mantles for gas lights, efforts started immediately for recovery of monazite from this deposit. Even though with the advent of electricity, the demand for gas lights and in turn that for thorium nitrate diminished, interest in these deposits continued since by that time technology developed for the production of titanium dioxide from the mineral Ilmenite. Titanium dioxide (TiO2), is a an insoluble white powder used extensively in many commercial products, including paint, cosmetics, plastics, paper and food, as an anticaking or whitening agent.  This is clipped from the 1954 film, The Ninth Element, produced by the Titanium Pigment Corporation, a subsidiary of the National Lead Company.  mining, factory, mill, spinning globe, laboratory, test labs, minerals  Thanks to the Prelinger Archives for saving this film and making it available on the Internet Archive.  Learn more on the wonderful Prelinger Archive at https://archive.org/details/prelinger.

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