Titan Mining starts operations at Kilbourne graphite plant in New York

[Ben Graham]

Titan Mining (TSX:TI, NYSE-A:TII) announced Thursday that ore feeding has commenced at its Kilbourne graphite demonstration facility in New York, advancing the project toward first graphite concentrate production.  

Located within Titan’s Empire State Mine infrastructure in St. Lawrence County about 300 km northwest of state capital Albany, the fully permitted 1,200-tonnes-per-year of concentrate demonstration plant is now in start-up operations. Output from the facility will enable qualification runs and offtake discussions, accelerating the project’s progression toward commercial  scale-up, it said. 

The company, which also produces zinc, said this marks a historic step forward to restoring end-to-end US natural flake graphite production for the first time in decades and the domestic output addresses critical supply-chain vulnerabilities that have materialized given global graphite export restrictions. 

The only producing graphite mine in North America is Northern Graphite’s Lac des Iles mine in Quebec, which is only being kept alive with federal funding. 

Titan is targeting ramp-up to a 40,000-tonne-per-year commercial graphite facility, which the company said would be capable of supplying about half of current US natural graphite demand. It said the facility will produce natural flake graphite in micronized and high-purity forms sourced from the company’s Kilbourne deposit. 

Titan Mining targets Q4 2025 to become only integrated US graphite producer

“Today is a pivotal moment not only for Titan, but for US critical minerals independence,” Titan CEO Rita Adiani said in a news release. “We are delivering on our commitment to re-establish a secure US supply of battery-grade natural flake graphite — a key input for energy storage, defense and strategic industries.”  

This milestone follows Titan’s recently released Kilbourne Project Study, which confirmed strong project economics and highlighted expanded backing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) 

In October, EXIM approved an additional $5.5 million in non-dilutive funding to accelerate feasibility work and issued a non-binding Letter of Interest for up to $120 million in project financing.  

The company has been producing zinc in the US since it bought the asset, which includes six historic mines and a 5,000 ton per day mill out of bankruptcy in 2018. 

“About two years ago, we discovered natural flake graphite on our property.  

The project has a resource from a tested strike length of 2,500 metres within a known total strike length of 7,620 metres,” Titan Mining CEO Rita Adiani told MINING.com in an October interview. 

“The growth engines that we have are obviously on the zinc side,” Adiani said. “We continue to grow that part of the business, but the graphite is a very unique opportunity given it’s domestic, it’s located within a mile of the operating site.  

“This is a very unique situation where you have policy tailwinds. You have an administration which is extremely supportive and gets the issue,” she said.  

“Alongside all of that, you have a project that can stand up on its own two feet.  Unlike a lot of junior companies, we have cashflow from operations, which we use to fund growth.”  

Adiani said the company expects to be able to make a construction decision by the end of 2026 with an aim to start construction in 2027. 

“The exciting thing about this is you get to create jobs, you get to create economic impact,” she said. “Domestic graphite, being delivered to US customers – hasn’t happened in 70 years.”