Titanium is the fourth most abundant metal in the earth’s crust among the industrially important metals. Currently, its ore is mainly mined in Brazil, India, Canada, Norway, South Africa and Australia.
The main ores of titanium are rutile and ilmenite, the former being mined primarily in Australia, followed by South Africa, and the latter in Australia, the largest source, and Norway.
These two types of ore are used because of the ease in mining due to their existence in beach areas in the form of sand deposits. Besides these two ores, anatase and leucoxene, a metamorphosed ore from ilmenite, are also abundant.
Since the life of the titanium resources is estimated to be as long as 10,000 years, there is no sign of exhaustion of resources in any forseeable future.
