Titan Mining (NYSE-A: TII; TSX: TI) is working to become the first commercial graphite producer in the United States in 70 years while pursuing an historic agreement with the Army to set up a graphite processing plant on a base in Alabama.
The proposed deal would see Titan ship graphite concentrate from its main Kilbourne mine and demonstration plant in upstate New York to the Anniston Army Depot, where Titan’s Empire Mines subsidiary would further process the graphite using some existing infrastructure. The depot is about 145 km northeast of Alabama state capital Montgomery.
"It's great to be able to produce a concentrate, but unless you can refine it down further, you end up facing that same situation where you're basically exporting the midstream back to China or somewhere else,” Titan CEO Rita Adiani told The Northern Miner in an October interview.
"This allows us to effectively get to an end-to-end product domestically, which is pretty significant from a supply chain security standpoint."
Government-industry momentum
Selected under the U.S. Army's Strategic Capital Initiatives (SCI) program in June, the base partnership marks significant cooperation between the government, military and industry as the U.S. increasingly seeks to bring critical mineral supply chains under domestic control and outside the influence of China.
Of the three Army bases under consideration, including Fort Drum in New York and Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas, Titan’s Anniston base deal has progressed to a commercial term sheet, although a definitive lease remains outstanding. The Anniston lease covers an initial 50 years with two additional 25-year renewal options.
The other companies selected under the SCI program include REalloys (Nasdaq: ALOY) and Ioneer (ASX: INR), which received conditional lease awards to develop separate heavy rare earth and boron processing facilities, respectively, at Tooele Army Depot in Utah; and private firm EnergyX, which has a conditional lease for a lithium plant at the Red River base in Texas.
13-year life
Kilbourne could produce about 40,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate annually at nameplate capacity over a 13-year life, according to a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) from 2025. Titan began production at Kilbourne in January and has shipped at least 1,600 kg of graphite concentrate to customers.
Discounted at 7%, it has a post-tax net present value of $513 million, a post-tax internal rate of return of 37% and initial costs of $156 million.
The PEA is based on 2.4 million inferred tons grading 2.91% graphitic carbon (Cg), containing 653,000 short tons of graphite in open-pit constrained resources, according to a 2024 initial estimate.
A feasibility study is under way for the integrated mining and processing operation, expected to be released in the first half of 2027.
Titan also produces zinc through Empire State Mines at Kilbourne, about 480 km northwest of New York City.
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