Excellent article, Galena.Agree with FLV, certainly puts into...

Excellent article, Galena.

Agree with FLV, certainly puts into focus the size of the opportunity for IPX.

Couple of points of interest. The article was published in June this year. Discussing the potential process improvements relative to solar PV manufacturing, the author says:

'There may be substantially fewer potential improvements in titanium production. In the 1950s, it was hoped/assumed that a better process for producing titanium sponge would come along to replace the Kroll process, which is a laborious and energy-intensive batch process that must be done in an inert atmosphere. But such a process has never materialized, and the Kroll process remains the primary method of refining titanium ore.

Likewise, turning titanium sponge into metal is an energy and capital-intensive process, often requiring multiple rounds of melting the metal to achieve sufficient purity. This process has also changed little since the 1950s. Beyond the lack of process improvements, titanium is just fundamentally difficult and expensive to deal with.

If there are simply fewer potential process improvements in titanium production compared to solar PV, due to the lack of better refining processes and the various physical constraints dictated by its chemistry, there’s less room for costs to fall. With less room for costs to fall, titanium remains an expensive, niche material, which in turn keeps production volumes low.

Finally, titanium is also a story about the critical role that manufacturing plays in technology development. The knowledge required to turn titanium into a practical technology came from the research lab, but it also came from the factory floor.

Technology consists of materials and machines and ideas, but they’re all stitched together by a collection of people that know how to do things. It’s by way of those people doing those things, and understanding them better and better, that new and better technology becomes possible.

Starting with Dr Fang's patented HAMR Process, seems to me that IperionX has put together a collection of people that know how to do things. understands them better and better, thus making the new and better technology possible.

IPX Investor Presso: Dr Zak Fang discovered, in 2016, that TiO2 can be reduced by solid magnesium under a hydrogen atmosphere because Hydrogen destabilizes the Ti-O bonds – Hydrogen Assisted Magnesiothermic Reduction (“HAMR”)

This principle also applies to deoxygenation of recycled titanium scrap as the most difficult impurity to “clean” is the pickup of oxygen on the surfaces – especially prevalent with machining scrap.

HAMR revolutionizes the ability to manufacture titanium metal from mineral or scrap that was previously not thought possible.

The other point of interest was the role the US Govt played in the development of the US titanium industry with subsidies and grants via the Dept of Mines, the US Army and Air Force and Dept of Defense. From there, commercial interests stepped in with the likes of Pratt & Whitney, Northrup and Lockheed's own financing and development programs. Nothing has changed. Titanium was strategically important to the US from the 1950 onwards and is even more so now.

It might be a relatively slow burn until the full scale of IPX's opportunity is fully monetised, but there is little doubt they are in the box seat to benefit from all manner of US Government and commercial assistance to bring the opportunity to fruition. Which in turn means there will be significant value-accretive opportunities along the road for SP appreciation.

IMHO.