Titanium's almost magical properties fuel growth trajectory

News.com.au

6 hours ago

Titanium's light weight, strength and other properties make it valuable for a range of applications
The metal is seeing increased demand from the aerospace, automotive, medical, and industrial sectors
Demand for titanium is growing at a steady pace, but new supply sources are limited
Often described as a magic metal thanks to its wealth of properties, titanium is seeing growing demand from the aerospace, automotive, medical and industrial sectors.
But just what makes titanium so valuable?
For starters, the lustrous, silver-grey metal has higher strength compared with steel and yet is about 40% stronger. It has excellent corrosion resistance, a high melting-point, and is non-toxic.
While the lion's share of titanium is used as a pigment in the form of titanium dioxide, a growing percentage of global demand relates to titanium metal, which requires TiO2 to be converted into titanium tetrachloride before it is reduced via the energy-intensive Kroll process to produce titanium sponge.
In the aerospace sector, titanium's light-weight strength – particularly when combined with steel – makes it invaluable for aircraft frames and engine components.
Highlighting this, titanium makes up a third of the weight of an advanced F-35 multi-role combat aircraft.
The metal is also used widely in the medical sector for hip and knee replacements, dental implants and various surgical instruments due to its biocompatibility, strength, and corrosion resistance.
Given the range of applications, it is no surprise the US, European Union, UK, Canada, Australia and Japan all classify titanium as a critical mineral.
Titanium market
As demand rises, the titanium market is projected to grow from US$27-30bn in 2024-25 to $37-53bn by 2029-34.
It faces supply disruptions and regional deficits due to geopolitical challenges, with Chinese dominance of the pigment sector driving supply deficits of high value titanium dioxide minerals such as rutile.
Rutile is the rarest, highest grade and most valuable source of titanium.
Petratherm (ASX:PTR) chief executive officer Peter Reid told Stockhead that while titanium prices are relatively stable at the moment, demand is still growing at a reasonable rate of 4-5% per annum.
'And we are starting to see a shortage of future supply. There aren't a lot of new heavy mineral sands projects being developed globally,' he added.
'Pricing is forecast to increase due to the increased demand and the shortage of local supply, particularly with high-end products such as rutile as there's been diminished supply and increased demand.'
Exciting discovery
This forecast is welcome for Petratherm, which is progressing the Rosewood heavy mineral sands discovery within its Muckanippie project in South Australia.
'We've completed two rounds of drilling and identified heavy mineralisation over a 20km2 area that's continuous with exceptional grades,' Reid said.
'There are two distinct lobes, or two strandline systems, to that mineralisation that we see with Rosewood East being the better looking system at this point of time.
'At Rosewood East, we've got a straight line system that's currently 3.6km long and about 2km wide where we're getting on average more than 10% heavy minerals over 10m."
This combination of scale and grade has Reid thinking the company is in a good position to bring the project online quickly.
'We think we've got two premium ores there that we can sell into the market as a heavy mineral concentrate,' he added.
A large part of the mineralisation consists of leucoxene – a titanium-rich mineral derived from the alteration of other titanium-bearing minerals like ilmenite – that runs around 70-75% titanium. Some portions might have up to 90% titanium.
One unique point about Rosewood is its mineralisation – all titanium-bearing minerals without the zircon and monazite seen in other heavy mineral sands projects.
'It is sourced from a nearby titanium rock source that was eroded and washed down into this ancient shoreline system and so it's all titanium minerals,' he notes.
'It is just a clean sand with titanium in it and we think it's going to be very favourable in terms of processing a good clean ore.'
Petratherm is now on the verge of starting another round of drilling at Rosewood.
This will extend several kilometres to the north, the results of which Reid is looking forward to because some of the best assays received to date have been on the northern edge of the existing drill grid.
Reid also thinks that Rosewood has great size potential and that recent results clearly indicate the company is right on the money – or possibly conservative – with its exploration target of between 250-350Mt.
'We have really only explored a quarter of that so a big part of what we're doing now is drilling out to the north to expand the current mineralisation, but also test other targets on our Muckanippie licence area for titanium,' he said.
'We'll have another phase of exploration drilling, which we're doing now. And in the spring, probably September-October, we'll go into it and start drilling for our initial resource.'
Other titanium plays
Petratherm is far from being the only titanium play on the ASX. There are several companies at varying stages of exploration and development who are also betting on the future of the magic metal.
DY6 Metals (ASX:DY6) has been uncovering broad zones of heavy minerals at its Douala Basin project in Cameroon, with the company noting in late June 2025 that reconnaissance auger and channel sampling identified thick zones of heavy minerals along with rutile.
Samples from this initial exploration program are currently being prepped for dispatch to the company's laboratory for analysis in South Africa with results expected in the September 2025 quarter.
Douala Basin consists of three granted exploration permits and three permits under application that cover a total area of 2580km2, just 50km from the deepwater port city of Douala.
Thick, preserved sequences of sandy material are known to exist across the tenement package and these are thought to represent palaeo-placer coastline dune deposits.
Historical drilling by French multinational Eramet intersected thick sequences of sands and confirmed the presence of rutile and zircon within the valuable heavy mineral assemblage.
Meanwhile, Sovereign Metals (ASX:SVM) Kasiya rutile and graphite project is one of the most advanced projects on the ASX with a definitive feasibility study due in Q4 2025.
In January this year, it released an optimised pre-feasibility study with technical aid from Rio Tinto that highlighted a large-scale, long-life project capable of delivering net present value and internal rate of return – both measures of profitability – of US$2.3bn ($3.67bn) and 27% respectively.
Kasiya is expected to generate total revenue of US$16.4bn over its initial 25-year mine life with capex to first production estimated at US$665m (increasing to US$1.13bn over the life of mine) and opex at US$423 per tonne of product.
It will have average annual production of 222,000t of rutile and 233,000t of 96% TGC graphite. Sovereign is already on the watchlist of the majors, with Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) on board as its top, near 20% shareholder.
Over in Sri Lanka, Titanium Sands (ASX:TSL) continues to progress its Mannar heavy mineral sands project, which has a resource of 318Mt at 4.17% total heavy minerals (THM) containing ilmenite.
Under a scoping study completed in 2023, a stage 1 development at Mannar will be capable of delivering NPV of $545m and IRR of 52% for a low capex of $122m and payback period of just under two years.
The 4Mtpa operation will produce globally competitive ilmenite over a mine life of 20 years.
The company has already received the terms of reference to progress environmental studies, retention licences for the high-grade zone, finalisation of corporate funding solutions with its largest shareholders and progress of environmental studies.
Terra Metals' (ASX:TM1) Dante project in WA's West Musgrave region differs from its other titanium projects in key aspects with its multi-commodity nature. The project encompasses titanium, copper, gold, vanadium and platinum, and sits in hard rock mineralisation rather than the typical heavy mineral sands.
The Dante Reefs are a series of gently dipping, laterally extensive mineralised layers which outcrop from surface and run for at least 42km, believed to mirror the Bushveld province of South Africa, which houses some of the world's largest, longest running and most profitable PGE, copper, nickel and gold operations.
Recent Phase 1 metallurgical testwork using simple and low-cost processing techniques (flotation and magnetic separation) demonstrated that Dante Reefs could become a reliable source of critical minerals in three high-grade concentrates – copper-gold-PGM, vanadium-magnetite and titanium-ilmenite.
Earlier in June 2025, it secured $4m in funding from two strategic investors with extensive operational expertise and long-term commitment to resource development.
This will fund an upcoming drill program to continue exploration and development work.