Global miner Rio Tinto's new ilmenite project in Madagascar is on track to produce by the end of this year, the project's head said on Sunday.

"We are about 91 percent complete overall and we should see the first production of ilmenite by the end of the year," said Gary O'Brien, president of QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM), owned 80 percent by Rio Tinto and 20 percent by the government of Madagascar.

While the initial output would be lower, O'Brien expects the mine to produce 750,000 tonnes of ilmenite by 2011-2012, at the end of the first phase of the project, and eventually reach an output of up to 2.4 million tonnes.

Ilmenite is a source of titanium dioxide, a white pigment used in paint and other coatings, paper, plastics and cosmetics and for titanium metal. – Ninemsn