Richards Bay Minerals (RBM), a leading mineral sands producer, is situated north of Richards Bay in Zululand, in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Our core business is extracting heavy minerals from the dune sands and beneficiating them to produce rutile, zircon, titania dioxide feedstock and high purity pig iron.

Raw products RBM produces include rutile, zircon and high quality pig iron

RBM is the trading name for two registered companies:  

• Richards Bay Mining (Pty) Ltd, which undertakes the mining and mineral separation
• Richards Bay Titanium (Pty) Ltd, which is responsible for the smelting and beneficiation process

Ninety-five per cent of RBM's 1.9 million tons of product produced annually is exported, with zircon and rutile separated and sold in their mineral form.  

The previous equal shareholders, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, concluded a BBBEE transaction in December 2009 whereby a consortium consisting of lead investors and the four host communities acquired 24% equity and an employee's trust acquired 2%. Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton now each retain a 37% shareholding and Rio Tinto is the managing company.

RBM is a major economic contributor to the region, employing 1 800 permanent staff and up to 2000 contractors at any given time.

Since RBM's establishment in 1976, the company has implemented a sound corporate social development programme and an internationally recognised environmental rehabilitation programme to restore the mined dunes to their natural state after mining.

RBM is proud of its ISO 9001 accreditation for quality, OHSAS 18001 certification for occupational health and safety management, and ISO 14001 accreditation for environmental management.