A consortium led by James Packer and John Singleton has given a massive no confidence vote to sands miner Iluka Resources by selling off more than two thirds of their stock in the company.

The Kolsen consortium consolidated a loss of almost $20 million after it sold off around $84 million of its holdings in Iluka through UBS. After the share sale, Kolsen retains about 9.7 million shares, equivalent to about 2.8 per cent of the expanded share base.

Iluka has long been struggling to battle the high Australian dollar, which has eroded its US dollar denominated sales. It has been further hit by high costs at its ageing West Australian operations and cost blowouts at its new development in Victoria's Murray Basin.

But chief executive David Robb says the company is in the process of engineering a turnaround. He says the company is focused on reducing costs in the west, expanding in the Murray Basin, and developing Iluka's zircon-rich discoveries in South Australia's remote Eucla Basin. Iluka is aiming to have its $450 million Jacinth-Ambrosia discovery in the Eucla in production by mid-2010.