IperionX produces high-quality spherical titanium alloy powder from Tennessee Minerals

IperionX Limited (NASDAQ: IPX, ASX: IPX) announced that it has successfully applied patented low-carbon titanium metal technologies to upgrade Tennessee titanium minerals into high grade +99% TiO2 and then into a high-quality spherical titanium alloy powder.

Testing has confirmed successful production of a spherical Ti-6Al-4V powder with aluminum and vanadium uniformly distributed within the sample and meeting industrial specifications, and oxygen content meeting Grade 5 specification (<0.2 wt%).

Ti64 is a widely used alloy of titanium, aluminum and vanadium that provides high strength-to-weight ratio, excellent corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. Spherical Ti64 powders are used to manufacture advanced components with additive manufacturing / 3D printing.

Titanium alloy powders are currently produced with the Kroll process to firstly create titanium metal sponge, which is then refined via a series of high energy titanium melt processes to produce large batch titanium alloys as ingots. These ingots are then processed into titanium alloy wire/rod, which are feedstocks for high energy plasma / gas atomization that produces spherical titanium alloy powders.

The patented titanium technologies avoid the high-cost, high-carbon Kroll process to create titanium sponge, but also bypass the series of energy intensive titanium melt processes, ingot manufacturing, wire production and gas atomization, to produce low carbon and low-cost titanium spherical powders.

Anastasios (Taso) Arima, IperionX’s Managing Director and CEO said: “The need to secure a cost effective, low carbon, all-American titanium metal supply chain is of critical importance to major U.S. industries and the U.S. defense sector.

Today’s announcement highlights that these innovative technologies can produce low carbon titanium metal and its alloys directly from domestically sourced titanium minerals from our Titan critical minerals project in Tennessee. These patented technologies can deliver production of innovative titanium alloys that were not possible with the current melt processes.

The signing into law of the Inflation Reduction Act (2022) last week was an important turning point for re-shoring critical low carbon American supply chains and provides a wide range of U.S. government funding opportunities and incentives to accelerate the scale-up of emerging technologies to reduce the U.S. reliance on foreign supply chains. These include $40 billion for DOE Loan Programs Office loan commitments, $500 million for the DOD DPA Title III program, and a 10% production tax credit for critical mineral and metal production in the U.S., enabling the acceleration of actions to fund and secure these critical supply chains.”

For more information about IperionX, please visit iperionx.com.