Good day, welcome to the iAccess Alpha Virtual Best Ideas Summer Investment Conference 2026. Our next presenting company is Titan Mining Corporation. If you'd like to ask a question during the webcast, you can do so at any point during the presentation by clicking on the Ask Question button on the left side of your screen. Type your question into the box and click Send. I'd now like to turn the floor over to today's host, Rita Adiani, President and CEO of Titan Mining Corporation. Please go ahead.
Thank you, welcome to everyone who's here to hear us on this presentation. Titan Mining is a New York Stock Exchange-listed company with the ticker TII, also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange with ticker TI. I will now guide you through the information. Some of the information which has been provided here does contain some forward-looking information. Please feel free to read the disclaimer at your convenience, we look forward to discussing more as we get through this presentation. Titan is a U.S.-based company with two assets within its platform currently, we're growing out our third asset base. We are the United State's fourth largest zinc producer with cash flow positive operations at our zinc mine in upstate New York.
As you can see from the diagram on the right-hand side and the map there, that we are very close to the Canadian border, which gives us great infrastructure. We are one of the largest mineral rights owners in upstate New York, with about 120,000 acres under our control. We have a 5,000 ton per day mill, fully operational mill. We have rail, port, air access. We have been in operation now for eight years. As a zinc company, we started the operation about eight years ago with less than a quarter of the employees that we have today. We have actually grown our employee base as well, very close to 165 employees at site within upstate New York.
Our critical mineral upside from existing operations really relies on getting germanium, which is currently included within our zinc process stream, more into commercial production, we're working on that. We have about 13,000 kg a year of germanium, which is actually contained within our zinc process streams. The story for Titan really did begin to change towards the end of 2023, early 2024, where we made a significant natural flake graphite discovery within a mile of our existing mill for our existing zinc mill. We took the initiative to actually set up a production facility. It's a small-scale production facility for producing natural flake graphite. Currently co-located with our zinc operations, which is producing about 1,200 metric tons of graphite flake and natural flake graphite concentrate, with the ability to scale that up to 2,500 metric tons per annum, which is about 5% of U.S. domestic consumption today.
Our plan is now to scale the operations all the way up to a 40,000 metric ton per annum capacity, which will look to satisfy about 50% of U.S. demand. That makes us effectively the first end-to-end natural flake graphite producer in the United States since 1956. The graphite project on its own has very compelling economics. It has an NPV of about CAD 513 million, an after-tax IRR of 37%, and a 2.7-year payback. Our goal is to move ahead with our plans with a view towards going into construction next year and being in production shortly thereafter. Our leadership team really does comprise of a best-in-class team.
Our board of directors is headed by Richard Warke, who is a Canadian entrepreneur. Richard, together with who is the founder of the Augusta Group, have had great success in the mining industry for over 30 years, and been responsible for discovery of some of the largest scale assets, taking them through discovery and development. As with Equinox Gold, which was one of the companies within the group, even taking it into production into a multi-asset company. We also have good representation from both sides of the aisle, which is Governor George Pataki, who is a three-term Governor for the State of New York, as well as Speaker John Boehner, who was the 53rd Speaker of the House of Representatives.
In the United States, we have Bill Mulrow, who was also Andrew Cuomo's Chief of Staff, together with Don and myself and Glenn, providing expertise from a technical capital markets perspective as well as from an accounting perspective. Our management team, which is based out of upstate New York and also out of Vancouver, comprises of myself, my VP of Operations, Joel Rheault, our VP of Commercial and Sales, Jenny, and Matt Melnyk, who is our VP of Geology and Exploration. In Vancouver, we have our new CSO, who'll be joining us shortly. Richard, together with Parikh and Tom as General Counsel and Senior VP of Corporate Affairs. We are part of the Augusta Group. The Augusta Group has a very long track record of value creation.
As you can see from the slide here, Richard personally owns, who is our Executive Chairman, he owns about 50% of the stock, together with 6% held by board and management. We have some very high-quality institutional holders of the stock, which is Alyeska, which is a fund based out of Chicago, together with BlackRock, which is one of the largest investors in the mining space as a long-only fund. We also have a number of institutional and family offices which hold about 32% of the stock. The Augusta Group has had, as I mentioned previously, significant success in the mining industry. We have taken companies from discovery all the way through development and exits. Very accretive exits in a number of ways, and we are very delighted to be one of the two companies within the portfolio currently, which comprises of Highland Copper and obviously Titan Mining.
Titan really is one of those companies which we're very proud of ourselves for being first in a number of ways. With respect to federal support, we are the first mining company to have been supported by United States EXIM Bank, which provided us with the first loan of about CAD 16 million for expanding our zinc operations. We are now in discussions with them to procure another CAD 120 million for our graphite project. That CAD 120 million is about 65% of the total expected capital cost. For us, that's a great endorsement, not only of the project, but it also shows the financial discipline which we exercise within the business and obviously trying to make the project a lot more accretive for shareholders through long-term debt. The facility being discussed with EXIM Bank is a 12-year facility with two years interest only and 10 years repayment.
It really does validate our strategic importance given that we're the first company really, which is not only the recipient and a loan party to the first direct mining loan, but also, obviously, a U.S. critical minerals hub really in upstate New York. Okay. A little bit about our germanium process streams and why we see this is important for the United States. About 60% of germanium production is actually controlled by China. Germanium is used in everything from night vision defense applications through to infrared optics, semiconductors, and also fiber optics. It is absolutely critical not only for the semis industry, for the AI boom, but also for the defense space. Germanium price in the United States has grown significantly from 2020, when it was predominantly and is currently controlled by China, to today, where obviously China has implemented very strict export controls.
That is likely to benefit us significantly. Germanium consumption in the United States has been around the 30,000 kg mark, and we expect the consumption to go up rapidly because of the end users really being in the defense space and semis and fiber optics. For us, germanium is really a by-product. With the mineral inventory that we have been able to work through within our current mineral resource base, we see the opportunity of really being able to unlock about 13,000 kg a year, which is a pretty significant amount given that the United States consumes about 30,000. Our inventory is already 13,000, so even if we apply a modest recovery rate to it, the ability to contribute significantly to germanium requirements of the United States is a pretty exciting value proposition.
We do not actually need to mine any of the process streams because they're already mined as part of our zinc production, or they are sitting in our tails. We did enter into an agreement with Teck's Trail operations and their refinery, which really does allow us to find a downstream solution without having to spend a significant amount of CapEx. We are currently working through the technical program, which will then lead us to the offtake discussions and then obviously implementing it to begin sending U.S.-made germanium or U.S.-mined germanium for refining through to Trail. A little bit about graphite and why it's so important. We at Titan started off with the zinc business. We have then expanded into graphite and are currently producing graphite at a small scale. Then obviously we have the byproduct potential within our germanium operation. Why is graphite so important?
It really is a material which is used for everything from coatings for aircrafts and for defense purposes through to coatings for ammunitions and for nozzles within rockets. China dominates about 80% of global output and controls about 90% of processing. We see this and see Titan as really the ability to provide a good solution to this China-dominated framework. The United States currently imports 100% of its graphite requirements, so really it does create a perfect opportunity for us to onshore this industry. Given that this discovery is within a mile of our existing current operating areas and currently sits within our property boundary, it does make it very exciting as an add-on project for Titan. A little bit about our graphite project and how we see the footprint developing. The current project is designed for 13 years. We see a significant amount of upside within this.
Both the ability to expand the deposit to the east as well as to the south. It has a nominal processing rate of about 1.4 million tons, which leads to production of about 40,000 tons of natural flake graphite. As previously mentioned, the project has very strong economics, which is about north of $500 million, together with an after-tax IRR of 37%. Again, as I referenced earlier, the expected capital for this is expected to be about CAD 160 million, of which we believe we have line of sight into CAD 120 million of debt, which really makes this project very accretive for shareholders, given its ability to generate about CAD 130+ million of annual EBITDA.
If you can see from the site plan, it really is a very compact site, and it is all based within our existing property boundary and property framework, which does allow us to streamline permitting as we look towards advancing this project. The demonstration plant, which has already been commissioned and is currently shipping initial concentrates. We are looking at qualifying the material with a number of customers, over 20 + customers, within the coming months. We're operating at a 1,200 metric ton per year capacity with the ability to add an additional shift to take that up to 2,500 metric tons.
The purpose of this platform was really to first and foremost begin to set up a facility on a small scale so that we could begin to advance qualification and approvals with defense and industrial customers, and obviously obtain offtake contracts to support a large-scale expansion from 1,200 metric tons all the way up to 40,000 metric tons. With respect to the graphite really, our product mix is very much focused on the defense and aerospace applications together with energy security and ESS, which is becoming a very big component of our economy's overall, and graphite is significantly used in ESS storage backup. We also find the usage of our graphite and are qualifying our graphite with high tech and advanced material developers, such as silicon carbide substrates, heat spreaders, and thermal interface materials. As mentioned previously, we see significant upside really within the 13-year mine life.
We expect the mine life to be closer to 20 years. We've already done a significant amount of infill drilling, which has shown that the resource expands towards the east and remains open at depth. We see this as a long life operation, not something which is going to last for 10 or 12 years, but probably for 20 + years. A little bit about our foundational business. The zinc business has been in operation now for eight years. Our current production base is close to about 65 million pounds of zinc. We see this as a long life operation. About eight years ago, we had a seven or eight-year mine life. We continue to add resources in quantities more than we could treat them. At current zinc prices, we're obviously making a pretty good margin on the business.
The zinc price at CAD 160, AISC all in is about CAD 107. We're taking away a pretty healthy margin with the expectation of probably having close to CAD 25 million- CAD 30 million of EBITDA for 2026. This really sets us apart from a number of other developers and miners who are developing other projects is because we have the benefit of not only an operational base but also cash flow from our existing zinc operations. Our zinc business has always had significant upside associated with exploration. We continue to explore within the mine and also within the region. As I mentioned, we own about 120,000 acres of mineral rights. Early last year, we added a target, which was really a copper-gold target.
We look to advance that over the coming months and looking to add more zinc resources to unlock more of a hub and spoke approach, as well as potentially copper-gold targets in the short and medium term. Why Titan? My personal belief is that Titan is really at an inflection point. We are today sitting at an EBITDA of close to CAD 30 million by adding in the graphite, which is expected to be in production within a few years. We expect to be able to ramp up our EBITDA to over CAD 125 million, with significant upside, not only coming from the graphite business as we look to expand that further, but also from the germanium operations which we're looking to unlock really in the coming months.
This is just to wrap up what do we see as the key catalyst for the remainder of the year and going into 2027. We expect to have a feasibility study completed by the end of the year. We expect to enter into offtake contracts, and also make the decision to move ahead with construction of the 40,000 metric ton per annum plant, which is expected to occur late this year, going into construction early next year on the graphite. We are working through the technical program, which will allow us to provide and obtain some revenue for the germanium operations, or the germanium by-product. Obviously, we continue to focus on exploration, not only with the graphite business, but also with the zinc business.
Needless to say, I think we've had a very busy few years behind us, but going into end of 2026, early 2027, we really see this as an inflection point for Titan and also our path towards onshoring mineral independence for certain minerals, certainly, which are controlled by China. I think I'll stop there and happy to take questions now.
Thank you for the presentation, Rita. We will proceed to the Q&A session now. Titan has evolved from a zinc producer into a broader critical minerals platform. How do you describe the company's transformation story to investors today?
That's a really good question. I think we didn't go looking for a lot of these additional opportunities. We were fortunate enough to find them in our backyard, as I put it. We really are at an inflection point. The zinc business will always continue to be a solid foundation for us, which provides all the downside protection which investors are looking for. From an upside perspective, it's obviously what we offer is significant amount of near-term cash flow upside coming from the graphite business together with this ability to really cater to minerals which are currently controlled by China. Our ability to be able to command a premium, not only for graphite but also for germanium, has become pretty evident in our discussions. They're not significant premiums, but they are premiums nonetheless.
For us, it's all about being the first mover, which obviously requires a lot more work. At the end of the day, I think we've turned ourselves from a zinc producer, as mentioned, into a graphite developer, and soon we'll be transitioning into a full-scale graphite producer and also a germanium producer.
Thank you, Rita. Our next question: The Kilbourne Graphite Project appears to be potentially transformational asset. What initially attracted Titan to graphite, and what gives you confidence in the project's long-term economics?
The graphite discovery was really one that we came across, and this was end of 2023, that we came across graphite more perchance than actually going to look for it. It was at a time where we began to recognize that the critical mineral security narrative and the defense requirement for graphite was going to become pretty significant very quickly. Our initial research into it and our initial technical work into it was very much focused on seeing if we can focus on quality, which will allow us to compete in the United States. What we're very proud to say is from discovery, which was really in 2023, we've been able to get to production in 2026. It's taken us about 2.5 to just about three years to effectively get there and begin producing graphite.
That for us is a big endorsement that not only are we convinced about the macro picture for the commodity, but we're also very, very enthused by the fact that it is something that we can easily execute on. I think that counts on a significant scale for any kind of project. There might be a lot of inventory in the ground, but the question is: Does it come with the right product quality? Which we've been able to prove through our demonstration plant, and very soon, yeah, we will be looking at getting customer base announced very shortly.
Continuing with the graphite questions. The company has stated, the Kilbourne could eventually supply a significant portion of U.S. national graphite demand. How large is the market opportunity, and when do you see the greatest sources of demand?
Yeah, there's a great slide, Irina, it's probably worth taking us to the slide, which is, I guess, slide 25, if I'm not mistaken, of our deck. We're happy to demonstrate that. As you can see on slide 25, we believe that the U.S. demand for graphite, which is what we're looking to cater to, really is about between 75,000 - 80,000, 72,000 to about an 80,000 metric ton market. The demand for graphite really will be driven by all these new ESS projects. The ESS projects really are being driven by the AI rollout. We see the ability to be able to obtain pretty significant market penetration going up all the way from 80,000 metric tons to about 200,000 metric tons within a span of the next decade.
For us, the market factors are very exciting and obviously being the first mover really gives us that advantage to be able to get a significant part of the market share.
Thank you, Rita. There's a lot of questions about germanium, maybe we can move to germanium now. How quickly do you anticipate progressing study and negotiations with Teck Resources with regards to germanium extract from your ore?
Our expectation is by the end of the year. In the next three months, we are due to complete our technical development, and alongside that, we will be progressing the offtake discussion. We would expect to have something in place by the end of the year or early next year.
Thank you, Rita. In terms of exploration, investors are interested, when would you expect results from your 2025 exploration program?
The results from our exploration program, first and foremost, will be largely focused on the graphite. As I mentioned, we'll be able to demonstrate very quickly the growth in mine life. We have completed our infill drilling, and it has expanded the resource pretty significantly. The existing resource stays. We've also been able to step out towards the east, which has given us a significant increase in mineral inventory. Our production base is, just because of the numbers that you can see on screen here on slide 25, we believe that the production base in the U.S. is about 80,000, close to 80,000 metric tons. We're going to keep our production base constant, really at 40,000 metric tons. We'll be able to see a significant increase in mine life. The graphite going up from 13 years to closer to 15+ years.
With respect to the zinc and with respect to other commodities which we're targeting, there is constant information out which is available through our MD&A. Really we expect to get through further on those targets in the second half of this year.
Thank you, Rita. Moving on to EXIM relationship. The company has highlighted a potential $120 million EXIM financing package for Kilbourne. How would that financing impact project development and shareholder dilution?
As I mentioned earlier, we expect the total capital cost of the project to be about CAD 160 million, out of which we expect the debt to be CAD 120 million. Really we're looking at a maximum net of any cash flow contributions which may come from our zinc operations. A very modest sort of equity raise if one is required. We're doing really well with our zinc operations as the zinc price is very supportive. If we were to do an equity raise to support the construction, it would be very modest. Obviously we're looking at other non-dilutive structures as well, such as offtake financing, et cetera, for our graphite project.
If we look at the accretion metrics of the project for about just let's call it a CAD 20 million dilution, which is about CAD 20 million-CAD 40 million, that's the range if we just put it that way. That is between 10% to probably 20% of the current market cap of the company. What it leads to is significant increase in EBITDA. Going up from an EBITDA projection of about CAD 25 million-CAD 30 million to north of CAD 125 million, which is almost 5x. We believe that the graphite project is very accretive. Really the benefit of that is because all the infrastructure's really installed at site. We really have a full scale operational team at site.
We believe that it is very accretive project, not only from a financial metrics perspective, but also from a stakeholder perspective and creating jobs for the economy in the north country.
Thank you, Rita. I think we only have one minute, maybe a closing remark in terms of what do you believe investors are still underappreciating about Titan's asset portfolio and long-term value creation opportunity?
I think I've said it before. I do believe we're in an inflection point. I think volatility always creates opportunity. For us, I see a significant catalyst coming up in the next six months or so, and then going into the new year as we look to de-risk the graphite story, add germanium to the production portfolio, and obviously continue to grow with our zinc operations. I think it's a very unique opportunity to cap your downside and have uncapped upside. I would recommend that folks take a look at the story, and obviously we're happy to answer any questions as required.
Thank you, everyone, and thank you for joining Titan Mining Corporation for our presentation today, and we look forward to connecting tomorrow in our one-on-one sessions. Thank you.