Titan soars as EXIM mulls $120M for graphite plant

Titan Mining (TSX: TI) shares surged to a historic high on news the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) is weighing potential funding of up to $120 million (C$167.3 million) that would pave its way to becoming the first U.S.-based fully integrated graphite producer.

Titan, one of the largest zinc producers in the U.S., also aims to become a key supplier of graphite for battery, defence and industrial applications by processing natural flake graphite produced at the Kilbourne deposit in upstate New York. The processing facility – located on Titan’s Empire State mine property in Gouverneur, N.Y., next to an operating zinc mill – is designed to process natural flake graphite from the company’s Kilbourne graphite mine. The plant is about 170 km north of Syracuse.

“This letter of interest marks a major milestone toward securing long-term, competitive-rate financing for project development as we continue to prioritize capital efficiency and disciplined balance sheet management supporting any construction decision at the Kilbourne project,” Rita Adiani, Titan’s CEO said in a release.

The funding announcement comes just weeks after Titan started commissioning the processing plant. All the natural graphite used in the U.S. is imported, with China accounting for about half of supply. Both the U.S. Department of Energy and the Department of Defense have designated graphite as a critical mineral for batteries, semiconductors, and defense systems. Northern Graphite (TSXV: NGC; US-OTC: NGPHF) runs the only significant producing natural graphite mine in North America at Lac des Iles, Que. 

Titan Mining’s shares surged over 13% to C$2.47 apiece at mid-Tuesday. The Vancouver-based miner has a market capitalization of C$338 million.

Half of market demand

The proposed 40,000-tonne-per-year commercial processing facility, to be built next to Titan’s Empire State Mines zinc complex could supply about half of the U.S. natural graphite market at full capacity, the company said.

The EXIM funding, if approved, will cover a “substantial portion” of the capital required to build its Kilbourne project.

Under the terms indicated by the bank’s letter of interest, the $120 million loan will have a repayment tenor of about 12 years, including an interest-only period, and will reference the Commercial Interest Reference Rate (CIRR), currently around 5%.

EXIM commitment

The EXIM letter, part of the “Make More in America” initiative, further extends the bank’s funding commitment to Titan. In June, the export credit agency approved a US$15.8 million loan to support the expansion of Titan’s zinc operations as well as the development of its graphite project.

According to a resource estimate in December, the Kilbourne project site holds 22.4 million tonnes of inferred material grading 2.91% graphitic carbon (Cg) for 653,000 tonnes of contained graphite. Processing of the graphite concentrates will initially occur at 20,000 tonnes per year, before the targeted capacity of 40,000 tonnes is achieved in 2027.