A titanium mining project in Kwale has been hit by a new wave of confusion after a Chinese company opted out of an agreement to take control of the project from a Canadian company. Jinchuan Group of China announced it was terminating an agreement to acquire 70% of the project from Canada’s Tiomin Resources, just a day before the deal was to be closed. Jinchuan said it was not satisfied with the disclosure schedule presented by Tiomin as it opted out of the deal, only two months after agreeing to acquire a controlling stake in Tiomin Kenya Ltd and to invest KES 1.8 billion to develop the project. The decision came a day after Tiomin obtained authority from the Kenya Government, something that was the last condition before closing of the deal. Tiomin has accused Jinchuan of using Tiomin to negotiate for supply contracts elsewhere, and said the company would proceed with a shareholders meeting to approve the transaction, regardless of the development. The decision by Jinchuan to pull out of the agreement now throws the project into a spin and fuels fears that the project will never take off. The Kwale project is estimated to hold 14% of the world’s titanium deposits, amounting to 3.2 billion tonnes, which can be extracted in a span of 20 years.