Asia Mining: Manganese

THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AUGUST 07, 2009

Asia Mining: Manganese

Continuing our posts about major minerals and their production this time we turn out attention to  manganese. This nice picture from Wikipedia shows it:

Manganese  is a key component in steel and iron production – this is up to 90 percent of the metal’s current consumption. It also is important in low-cost stainless steel formulations and aluminum alloys.  This is the fourth most heavily consumed metal – behind iron, aluminum and copper. About 34 million tons of manganese ore were mined in 2006; the global unit consumption of manganese ferroalloys was approximately 10 kilograms alloy per metric ton of steel produced.
According to InfoMine:
Top producing companies: Joint Venture between BHP Billiton and Anglo American Plc, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, Privat-Holding ( Kolomoyskiy ) Group , Eramet Group, Ghana Manganese Co Ltd, Harmony Gold, Assore Ltd, State of Gabon , Manganese Ore ( India ) Ltd, Nakosta AG
Top producing countries: South Africa, Brazil, Gabon, Australia, China, Ukraine, India, Mexico.
Van Eck Associates Corporation via their informative Web-service HardAssetsInvestor.com just released a detailed analysis “Manganese – an unsung hero” .
A very good materials are presented in Manganese: Alloy and Ore Market Outlook by ENRC, a public Kazakh company – detailed description of mineral, properties, applications and market (current and projections):

InfoMine has abundance of information on manganese.
Although Indonesia is not listed in the top of manganese producing countries, as you may see in our previous post – the country does have resources, but at the time of table (2005) – no production. But as on now – Alibaba  lists more than 200 suppliers of Indonesian manganese ore. More information can be found in Manganese Indonesia – Manganese Indonesia sellers, suppliers, traders, buyers, trade leads. A few years ago it was reported that Chinese Guangxi Dameng Manganese Co. Ltd. plans to collaborate with Jiawang Group to develop manganese resources in Kalimantan State, and will invest funds to acquire a 50 percent stake in the project.
And here is a list of useful manganese Web- references:

• Australian Manganese Resources – a nice map
• Mineral Information Institute
• The Manganese Ore Resources in China and their Prospecting by China Geological Survey
• China Mn Ore Resource Overview
• International Manganese Institute
• U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2008
• Manganese Statistics and Information USGS
• MAC: Mines and Communities