IperionX Lands Up to $47.1M from DoD for Titanium 3D Printing Powders

IperionX, the Charlotte-based supplier of critical mineral powders used for additive manufacturing (AM), has been awarded a contract worth up to $47.1 million from the US Department of Defense (DoD) in a competitive bid to provide titanium to the US defense industrial base (DIB). Over a two-year period, the DoD and IperionX will fund a two-phase development program with up to $70.7 million, with IperionX providing the remainder of the investment.

In Phase 1 of the project, the US government will contribute $5 million, while the company will provide $1 million, to perform feasibility studies related to IperionX’s Titan Project, a critical minerals operation in west Tennessee. As of August, 2023, IperionX has received all necessary permits to move forward with the Titan Project, which the company claims is “the largest JORC-compliant resource of titanium and rare earth rich mineral sands in the U.S.”

Depending on the results of the study, and the technical progress of IperionX’s scale-up, the rest of the $42.1 million from the DoD contract will be awarded over the course of the two-year deal. IperionX plans to use those funds to increase production capacity at its Virginia Titanium Manufacturing Campus, and to accelerate the vertical integration between its mining and its processing operations.

In a press release, the CEO of IperionX, Anastasios Arima, said, “This award is a pivotal moment in IperionX’s mission to re-shore the U.S. titanium industry. For too long, American industry has been reliant on foreign-controlled supply chains for this critical high-strength metal. IperionX’s proprietary technologies, combined with the Titan Project, offer a pathway for a resilient end-to-end U.S. titanium supply chain. We are proud to be selected by the DoD as a key partner in strengthening U.S. industrial and defense capabilities.”

IperionX’s gradual move towards full commercialization of its unique business model is an important test for the US industrial landscape, which has implications far beyond the AM industry. And, in that same sense, the company’s success would go a long way towards solidifying the role of metal AM in the American manufacturing sector.

With that in mind, the fact that the company not only won a contract of this size from DoD, but that the contract was the result of competitive bidding, bodes brightly for the idea that an end-to-end critical minerals supply chain has a place in the contemporary US economy. Given how quickly the Trump administration’s trade war actions are ramping up — and how central the control and price of metals are to those actions — IperionX has real potential to become an integral part of US industry and industrial policy alike.

The company’s business model also highlights the too-often-overlooked reality that sustainability and resilience are two objectives that are more or less aligned. While those who advocate for sustainability and those who advocate for supply chain resilience typically find themselves on opposite sides of the political divide — at least in the US — IperionX is one of the companies proving that such a divide is by no means a foregone conclusion.

Images courtesy of IperionX