A quiet recovery is underway New York Statehighlighting a major shift in U.S. industrial and national security priorities.
Titan Mining has begun processing the first newly produced American graphite since the 1950s, transforming an ordinary-looking rock into a material now considered essential to everything from advanced batteries to modern weapons systems.
For most people, graphite brings to mind pencils. However, it has become the backbone of the energy and defense economics. The mineral is a key component of lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs), drones, communications equipment and military equipment. It is also used in nuclear reactors, missiles and high-temperature industrial applications, giving it an important role in both everyday technology and national defense.
For decades, the United States has allowed its graphite supply chain to slowly move overseas. Today, all U.S. graphite is imported, with about 42% coming from our biggest adversary, China. Reliance on a single foreign supplier has transformed graphite from a commodity mineral into a growing commodity. national security concern as competition between the United States and China intensifies.
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Titan Mining CEO Rita Adiani directly highlighted these risks.
“…That’s why it’s a very unique proposition to be a domestic producer, because it’s a national security issue,” Adiani said.
These pressures have fueled a growing political response in Washington. Under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), federal agencies face strict limits on sourcing critical materials from foreign adversaries. This puts national graphite projects like Titan’s directly in the spotlight.
“…Under the NDAA, there are severe restrictions on purchases and that is again why we play a very crucial role,” Adiani said.
Adiani highlighted how unexpected discoveries can reshape the country’s resource map.
“So we have a 120,000-acre mineral rights package. We went looking for zinc and we found graphite,” she said.
She explained how raw rock is transformed on-site into a high-purity material.
“So what you’re looking at here is rock extracted from the ground. We take that and concentrate it down to very high levels of graphite… The flotation circuit you see here is about 95 to 99 percent graphite.”
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While Washington tightens rules on public procurement and American industries seek to secure stable supplies, graphite moves from a niche material to a strategic resource. Reopening U.S. manufacturing adds a new chapter to rebuilding these supply chains.
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