Toronto-listed Titan Mining on Monday announced the discovery of the Kilbourne graphite trend, located on the permitted lands hosting its currently operating Empire State mine, in upstate New York.
The company believes the Kilbourne target has the potential to host between 3.36-million tonnes and 26.25-million tonnes of graphitic carbon, contained in 210-million to 1.05-billion tonnes grading 2% to 4.5% graphitic carbon.
“This could be extremely attractive and strategically important for America to secure a domestic supply of graphite which is the biggest component of the growing electric vehicle battery industry,” commented Titan director and former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives John Boehner in a statement.
The company will implement an aggressive plan to fast-track exploration and development with the goal of being the first domestic supplier of materials to the automotive industry battery market.
Currently, there are no domestic sources for natural flake graphite in the US, while China produces more than 60% of the world’s graphite supply and recently announced export restrictions that may threaten supply.
The US only has two graphite deposits at prefeasibility stage or beyond. These are the Graphite Creek deposit in Alaska and the Coosa graphite project in Alabama.
The Department of Energy projects that demand for graphite will exceed production by 79% in 2025. By the year 2035 that gap between production and demand is projected to range from 34% up to 822%. Even with developments elsewhere in the world, China is expected to maintain its global dominance.
“The confirmation of a global scale flake graphite target on the company’s land package is an especially significant development in the history of the company,” said Titan CEO Donald Taylor.
The Empire State mine currently produces zinc concentrate. News of the graphite discovery, at a time when China is restricting exports, helped Titan's share price gain 10% on Monday morning, trading at C$0.43 a share.