Worldwide supply

Worldwide acid grade fluorspar production was around 3.3 million tonnes in 2006 and the main exporters include China, Mexico and South Africa, with smaller quantities exported from Europe.

Without a domestic source of fluorspar, UK consumers would be reliant on imports from other countries. However, a number of factors limit the import of acid grade fluorspar, namely:

- Global availability
- Price
- Quality of acid grade fluorspar

Until recently there has been an abundant supply of fluorspar from China, with over 50% of the world’s mineral supplied by the Chinese. However, overseas supplies from China are now scarce due to the expansion of its own fluorochemical industry and restrictions on exports; a decrease from 1.4million tonnes in 1999 to 0.6million tonnes in 2006.

South African fluorspar is high in phosphorus, iron and arsenic and is not available in sufficient quantities to meet INEOS Fluor’s need.

Raw materials sourced from Mexico, if available, contain high arsenic levels. Arsenic removal technology would require significant capital investment and the end product would not be competitive in current market conditions for fluorochemicals.

European fluorspar, mainly from Spain, is not available in sufficient quantities and is at too high a delivered cost.

The importation of HF is not a viable alternative to producing HF in the UK from UK sourced fluorspar. The hazardous nature of HF constrains the parcel size of an HF container that results in a significant number of iso-tanks, a significant number of hazardous loading / off-loading operations and generates a substantial carbon footprint.

INEOS Fluor’s Runcorn plant was designed to operate using acid grade fluorspar and has never been operated without Derbyshire fluorspar as a proportion of its feedstock. Modification of the Runcorn HF plant to use other sources of acid grade fluorspar would still not guarantee the ability to source from elsewhere given current prices and availability.

As INEOS Fluor cannot import fluorspar at a price and in sufficient quantities for the business to be economically viable, investment in Glebe Mines, following a successful Tearsall planning application, remains the only option to sustain INEOS Fluor’s Runcorn operation.