Becher Process
Mineral sands are an important source of ore for zirconium, titanium, thorium, tungsten and other rare earth elements. Western Australia has significant deposits of mineral sands on the Swan coastal plain with mining having occurred, or continuing to occur, in a number of locations from Eneabba in the North to Beenyup (near Augusta) in the South.
After World War II, Australia was the largest producer of two of the main mineral sands’ most valuable products, rutile and zircon. Rutile is a source material for titanium and zircon for zirconium. While the mineral sands’ industry has been a relatively small part of Australia’s mining industry compared with gold, coal, iron ore and other base metals, Australia has played an important role in the global supply of these raw materials for a number of end users.
While rutile and zircon can be separated by spirals in a wet plant or by magnets and electrostatic equipment in a dry plant, the most abundant mineral sand in Western Australia is ilmenite. Due to the inclusion of iron oxide, ilmenite is only about 56% titanium dioxide (TiO2) and if Western Australia’s mineral sands industry was to develop to its full potential, a sustainable method for removing the iron and increasing the concentration of TiO2 in ilmenite was required.
Early plants for the processing of ilmenite were acid sulphate based plants with a waste that disposed of acidic waste into the ocean via sand dunes which suffered significant rust staining. A plant of this type operated for a time at Burnie in Tasmania in the late 1950s. In Western Australia the first and only plant of this type, which operated in the 1960s, was the Laporte plant in Australind. Laporte’s iron rich wastes were transported in a pipeline on a wooden pier across Leschenault Inlet and into the sand dunes in the Leschenault Peninsula Conservation Park.
A chemist working for the WA Government, Robert (Bob) Becher, motivated by a wish to protect Western Australian beaches from rust staining by removing the iron in an alternative process, worked to overcome this problem. Bob Becher invented what became known as the Becher Process, a process for converting ilmenite to synthetic rutile which contains between 88 and 95% TiO2. This process increases the value of the product five-to-tenfold and has allowed Western Australia to become one of the world’s major exporters of titanium dioxide.
To date a total of six synthetic rutile plants have been built in Western Australia, with two still in use, one at Capel and one at Muchea.
Engineering Heritage Recognition Program
| Marker Type | Engineering Heritage Marker (EHM) |
| Award Date | 26 March 2021 |
| Heritage Significance | The introduction of the Becher Process gave a significant boost to the mineral sands processing industry in Australia by inventing and developing a method for treating ilmenite to obtain synthetic rutile at a higher level of purity than other methods, while having lower environmental effects. In 2013 synthetic rutile made up around 20% of feedstock for global chloride pigment production. |
| Nomination Document | Available here. |
| Ceremony Booklet Ceremony Report |
No ceremony arranged. |
| Plaque/Interpretation Panel | None Installed. |
