STATE CAPITAL$M
Titan Mining, US Army advance strategic graphite processing plant in Alabama
Titan Mining (NYSE-A:TII, TSX:TI) announced Wednesday that its wholly owned subsidiary, Empire State Mines, LLC (ESM), and the U.S. Army have executed a term sheet establishing the principal commercial terms to develop a critical minerals processing facility on U.S. Army property.
Titan Mining’s subsidiary, Empire State Mines, has agreed to terms on a framework to lease roughly 97 acres at Anniston Army Depot in Alabama for up to 100 years, to build a facility that turns raw graphite into higher-value materials used in batteries, defense equipment, and industrial products.
The term sheet contemplates providing Titan with a pathway to establish downstream graphite processing capacity within an existing strategic U.S. defense installation. Development would leverage established infrastructure, site access and coordinated utilities planning to support the fast-track construction of the facility.
In January, Titan commenced graphite concentrate production at its Kilbourne demonstration facility in New York state, marking the first US production of the material in decades. The pilot plant is located at the company’s Empire State Mine infrastructure in St. Lawrence County.
In July, the company entered into a supply agreement with a U.S. manufacturer serving the aerospace, defense and advanced industrial sectors for the supply of natural graphite products from Titan’s planned commercial graphite facility in New York.
Army right of first offer
Under the terms of the US Army deal, ESM would develop, finance, build, own and operate a commercial-scale graphite processing facility designed to produce value-added natural graphite products, including Purified Micronized Graphite (PMG) in phase I and Coated Spherical Purified Graphite (CSPG) following customer qualifications, supporting U.S. defense, industrial and energy supply chains.
The proposed framework provides the Army with a right of first offer to purchase certain uncommitted PMG and CSPG produced at the facility, subject to applicable federal procurement requirements. The right is limited to a maximum of 10% of annual facility production and does not apply to product committed under qualifying offtake, supply or project-financing arrangements.
The proposed facility would extend Titan’s domestic graphite platform downstream into purified and coated graphite products critical to U.S. defense, advanced manufacturing and energy applications.
“Agreeing to this commercial framework with the U.S. Army is a significant milestone in Titan’s strategy to build a fully integrated American graphite supply chain,” Titan CEO Rita Adiani said in a news release. “Developing within an existing Army installation provides important infrastructure and strategic advantages and creates a pathway to establish large-scale domestic graphite processing without having to develop an entirely new industrial site from the ground up.”
Adani said the framework combines long-duration site control, strategic U.S. defense infrastructure and financing flexibility with Kilbourne’s domestic natural flake graphite resource, existing operating infrastructure and expertise in New York.
“The ability to process critical minerals on U.S. soil is a national-defense priority required for munitions, missiles, sensors, batteries, and the platforms our Soldiers depend on,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment Dr. Jeff Waksman said.
“Leveraging our legal authorities and land, the U.S. Army is able to help nurture and expedite the growth of critical minerals industrial base which equips and sustains America’s Soldiers without putting any taxpayer dollars at risk.”
By market close on Wednesday, Titan’s stock was down 6% on the NYSE American. The company has a $228 million market capitalization.
No comments:
Post a Comment