Titan Mining (TSX:TI,NYSEAMERICAN:TII) has secured a conditional agreement with the US Army to construct the country’s first commercial graphite-processing facilities on military installations.
The company announced on Thursday (June 25) that its wholly owned subsidiary, Empire State Mines, has received enhanced use lease selections to build the Kilbourne graphite purification plant across two strategic defense sites: the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas and a secondary site at the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama.
The leases, which can run for up to 50 years under federal statutory authority, are among the first issued under President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order, which mandates the deployment of domestic mineral-processing infrastructure on defense installations.
Titan will bear all design, financing, construction and operating costs. The US Army will retain ownership of the land at all times, with Titan providing in-kind infrastructure improvements to the host bases in lieu of cash rent.
“For the first time in American history, a critical minerals processing facility will be built on US defense soil, and Titan Mining is the company making it happen,” Titan President and CEO Rita Adiani said in the company’s announcement.
The US currently produces no natural flake graphite at a commercial scale and relies entirely on imports. Furthermore, Chinese refiners control more than 90 percent of global battery-grade graphite-processing capacity.
Domestic developers were also recently stripped of anticipated trade protections. In March of this year, the US International Trade Commission ruled that Chinese graphite anode materials were not harming the domestic industry.
The ruling blocked proposed anti-dumping and countervailing duties by the Department of Commerce that would have slapped tariffs exceeding 160 percent on Chinese imports, forcing emerging US producers to compete directly against low-cost foreign material. Simultaneously, Beijing has aggressively tightened its grip on global supply by imposing strict export controls on artificial graphite and blended anode materials late last year.
To supply the newly approved military-based refineries, Titan is leveraging its footprint in upstate New York, where it operates the Empire State zinc mine, expected to produce 62 million to 66 million pounds of payable zinc in 2026.
The company commissioned a demonstration facility last year to process material from its adjacent Kilbourne graphite deposit, aiming to scale to 40,000 metric tons of natural graphite concentrate per year.
According to Titan, that’s enough to meet roughly half of current US demand.
The proposed facilities in Arkansas and Alabama will take that raw domestic feedstock further downstream, producing processed graphite for military, energy storage and industrial applications.
Negotiations for formal business terms agreements with the US Army are currently underway. Construction of the primary facility is targeted to commence in the second half of 2027.
Shares of Titan surged in Toronto on the news, spiking to C$3.70 the day of the announcement. As of Friday (June 26) at 11:15 a.m. PDT, the company’s share price was at C$3.04.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
