IperionX has secured all permits needed to start construction and operations at a proposed titanium production facility in Virginia, US.
Halifax County Service Authority has issued an Industrial Wastewater Discharge permit while the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality issued the New Source Review (air pollution) permit.
These approvals allow the company to scale to the planned TCF-1 (titanium commercial facility) capacity of 1,125 tonnes per annum (tpa) within the current 50,000ft² shell facility in Halifax County, Virginia.
With all major engineering works now finished, and procurement of equipment under way, the first production from the stage-one TDF (titanium demonstration facility) is scheduled to start in Q1 2024.
IperionX intends to attain a 125tpa production run-rate of titanium metal by Q3 2024 from the stage one TDF.
Development of the TDF is, now, subject to the approval of the company’s board for a final investment decision.
Meanwhile, the proposed modular stage two expansion to the TCF-1 level would take titanium production capacity to 1,125tpa by the end of 2025 and make it the world’s largest 100% recycled titanium powdered facility.
According to the company, the design of the TDF and TCF-1 is based on a scaled-up version of the current industrial pilot facility in Salt Lake City.
This pilot facility has been operated successfully by the company since January last year.
IperionX CEO Anastasios (Taso) Arima said: “Securing all major permits is an important milestone in developing the world’s largest 100% recycled titanium plant and is a credit to the successful work of the IperionX development team, Halifax County, Virginia and regulatory agencies.
“IperionX is uniquely positioned to re-shore titanium metal production to the USA, reducing the acute reliance on titanium imports from foreign nations and lowering the significant environmental impacts from producing titanium metal using the existing ‘Kroll Process’ – which is energy-intensive, high cost and generates excessive greenhouse gas emissions.”
