Sintered high titanium agglomerates

A process for increasing the particle size of fines of a titaniferous mineral to be fed into a fluidised bed reactor containing more than 45% by weight titanium, which process comprises:

• agglomerating said fines with a binding agent and water to produce an agglomerate, the amount of said binding agent being in the range of 0.5 to 5% by weight of the agglomerate, wherein said binding agent is colloidal silica, silica, water soluble silicates or silica/fluorite mixtures, clay minerals, Boehmite, Boehmite/silica mixture, lignosulphonate, sodium carbonate, sodium silicate, Group II element carbonate/clay mineral mixtures, sugars, aluminum salt/organic amide mixtures, polyvinyl acetate or water emulsified organic binders
• drying the agglomerate, and
• sintering the dried agglomerate at a temperature from 1000 to 1500.degree. C. to produce a sintered agglomerate having an average particle size from about 100 to 500 microns.