RE: Protecting market prices4 Nov 2025 10:43
Agreed Stiperstones - price floors for TiO2 or (more likely) Ti sponge are a strong possibility. A precedent was set a few weeks ago with the US deal with MP Metals in which a price floor was set for their NdPr (magnet metals) output. The deal included a profit share for the US taxpayer should NdPr prices exceed a certain level.
China has been engaging in mercantilism across many broad market segments. The US has finally woken-up to this and its implications. Setting price floors for strategic raw materials will encourage US domestic production and aligned countries (e.g. Australia) to invest in their production - thus diminishing the dependence on China annd Russia. Of course it can take years from a mineral discovery to mine output but better late than never.
SB has been commenting a lot about production of Ti Metal rather than TiO2 recently. Although he hasn't been explicit about it, I am sure he recognises that Ti02 pricing has been soft due to Chinese over supply and lacklustre global demand. Ti metal pricing, however, has been more robust. Ti metal is also strategically important and we are told that the low impurities of the Pitfield ore are a competitive advantage.
One of the other advantages of targeting high value Ti metal production instead of TiO2 is that the mining operation would be smaller and less capex hungry. Reduced mining capex would at least partially offset the capex cost of additional stages of processing to make metal.
IMO Shaun knows that he's not likely to get US strategic funding to make pigment grade TiO2 but he might get it for Ti metal. High value, strategic Ti metal.
I am hoping that in the coming months we'll see some kind of grant funding and/or floor pricing announcement which affects Pitfield. This might be via the Aussie federal government or even more directly with the US.