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Johannesburg - The world's top ferrochrome producer Xstrata said on Tuesday its new R12.76bn ($1.67bn) Lion ferrochrome smelter and mine with a capacity for 320 000 tonnes per year had started production this month.
The Lion project is a joint venture with Merafe Resources, Xstrata said in a statement.
Xstrata could not say exactly how much ferrochrome was currently being processed at the new smelter, but said the plant would handle the commodity mined at a nearby mine as well as from other mines owned by the group.
The new smelter and mine would increase Xstrata-Merafe's annual capacity by over 22% to 1.96 million tonnes, and cut the average unit operating cost of the business.
South Africa is the world's biggest producer of ferrochrome, of which stainless steel producers account for more than 80% of the alloys' global use.
Deon Dreyer, Xstrata Alloys managing director, said the plant would use proprietary technology that would sharply cut production costs on electricity and coking-coal use as it was the cheapest ferrochrome smelting technology.