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Tronox Limited is an American worldwide chemical company involved in the titanium products industry with approximately 7,000 employees. Following its acquisition of the mineral sands business formerly belonging to South Africa's Exxaro Resources, Tronox is the largest fully integrated seller and marketer of titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment, which provides brightness to applications such as coatings, plastics and paper. Tronox also sells titanium ore – the main feedstock of titanium dioxide - and zircon directly to customers.
Tronox is the third-largest titanium feedstock producer, with approximately 10% of global titanium ore production; and the second-largest producer of zircon, with approximately 20% of global production. The company also has an electrolytic and speciality chemicals business that services the paper and battery industries. Formerly a part of the Kerr-McGee Chemical Corporation and based in Oklahoma City since it was spun off from its parent in 2005, the company announced in June 2012 that it was moving its headquarters to Stamford, Connecticut.
The company was spun off in part to offload its parent company Kerr-McGee's legacy of generations of environmental dumping of toxic waste across 22 states. According to one report, "Kerr-McGee, rather than pay for the environmental mess it created, decided to shift the liabilities between 2002 and 2006 into Tronox. Kerr-McGee, meanwhile, kept its valuable oil and gas assets." Tronox did not reveal the massive hidden liabilities to investors, and after they became known, Tronox dropped to a penny stock in 2009. In response, shareholders sued Anadarko Petroleum (successor to Kerr-McGee) for keeping the scope of the environmental disaster a secret. In addition the US federal government sued Anadarko to pay for the cleanup, and in April 2014 settled on the largest environmental contamination settlement in American history, over $5 billion.
- Stamford, Connecticut
- Namakwa Sands, South Africa
- KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Sands, South Africa
- Cooljarloo, Western Australia
- Chandala Processing Plant, Western Australia
- Pooncarie, New South Wales
- Hamilton, Mississippi
- Botlek, Netherlands
- Bunbury, Australia
- Kwinana, Australia
- Stallingborough, United Kingdom
- Henderson, Nevada
Kerr-McGee spun off its chemical business circa 2005-2006 after demands were made by corporate raider and major Kerr-McGee shareholder Carl Icahn.
Among other things, Tronox inherited several radioactive waste sites from Kerr-McGee. These include the Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site and the Rare Earths Facility. They are, as of 2014, still undergoing cleanup.
It also inherited the Henderson, Nevada "BMI" site. This site had supplied Magnesium and other chemicals beginning around World War II. It eventually leaked perchlorate (used in rocket fuel) into the water table, which subsequently contaminated Lake Mead and the Colorado River, which supply water to millions of people.
Exiting bankruptcy in February 2011, Tronox's Chapter 11 plan created the Anadarko litigation trust to pursue Tronox's lawsuit against Anadarko and Kerr-McGee. Tronox has transferred an 88% share of its interest in the lawsuit to the federal government.