Empire Metals (LSE:EEE) has joined an Australian Government-backed research initiative to investigate titanium metal production from its Pitfield Titanium Project in Western Australia.
The company’s research program with Murdoch University has been accepted into the Critical Metals for Critical Industries Cooperative Research Centre (CMCI CRC). The work will examine whether Pitfield’s titanium dioxide (TiO₂) product can be converted directly into metal using molten salt electrolysis (MSE), powered by renewable energy.
Initial phases are scheduled for completion in early 2027. Researchers aim to establish whether the feedstock is suitable for titanium metal production and develop a strategy for larger, continuous pilot operations.
The research comes as Empire advances engineering and economic studies at Pitfield, with pilot-scale test work planned ahead of feasibility studies, as previously reported by Mining.com.au.
The Australian Government awarded the centre $53 million over 10 years in March 2026. That funding supports the broader centre rather than representing a grant directly to Empire.
The centre brings together industry and researchers to develop and commercialise critical metals refining technologies, with a focus on building domestic processing capacity.
Testing an alternative to Kroll
The research targets an alternative to the Kroll process, which Empire says remains the dominant method of titanium metal production.
Developed in the 1940s, Kroll involves converting TiO₂ into titanium tetrachloride before reducing it with magnesium. Its energy and labour requirements contribute to production costs that have largely confined titanium metal use to higher-value aerospace, defence, and medical applications.
MSE instead reduces TiO₂ directly into titanium metal in a single electrochemical step.
Empire says the method could lower energy consumption, minimise hazardous by-products, and become more cost-effective if adapted to continuous production. These potential benefits remain the subject of research.
The company notes it has already produced a product grading 99.25% TiO₂ through conventional processing at Pitfield. The new work will assess a route from that product to titanium metal.
Empire says a successful outcome could support domestic titanium production in Australia. The immediate task, however, is to establish feedstock suitability before progressing towards continuous pilot-scale operations.
Empire Metals is a London-based exploration and development company focused on commercialising the Pitfield Project in WA.
Write to France Pinzon at Mining.com.au
Images: Empire Metals
