Timet, Altair in deal to research titanium extraction process

Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 | 10:44 a.m.

A Northern Nevada company has signed an agreement with Denver-based Titanium Metals Corp. (Timet) to supply researchers at Timet's Henderson plant with materials that may help industrialize an experimental metal extraction process.

Reno-based Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. announced Wednesday that it has approved a memorandum of understanding with Timet to collaborate on the development of a program funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for producing low-cost titanium.

Titanium is a lightweight metal used in the aerospace and automotive industries for the manufacturing of airplane and automobile parts. It also is used in utility plants, for gas and oil drilling, and for lightweight sporting goods equipment, including bicycles and golf clubs.

Earlier this year, Timet received the $12.3 million federal grant to determine if a laboratory process for extracting titanium from titanium-bearing ores can be industrialized.

The process -- known as the "FCC Cambridge Process," with the initials honoring the three University of Cambridge scientists who developed it -- could save the industries and companies that build with titanium millions of dollars over time.

Timet won the government grant in a competitive process that began last year.

Altair, a 25-employee operation that originated as a mining company spin-off, will provide low-cost titanium dioxide to make customized electrodes for the Timet project. Altair has a patented process that controls titanium dioxide particle size, shape and crystalline structure.

Timet and Altair may decide to negotiate a licensing agreement or some other commercial relationship if Altair's process and materials benefit the project, the companies said.

Representatives of Timet and Altair were in Henderson Thursday to announce the signing of the agreement and to be saluted by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., whose staff worked to bring the companies together.

About 30 Timet employees, several of them plant workers from among the 400 who work for Timet in Henderson, heard Reid reminisce about his high school days in Henderson and how his father worked for a period at the Timet plant.

Reid assured the workers that he would be supportive of "Buy American" provisions in proposed legislation and said that he and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., were successful in persuading a U.S. trade representative to convince President Bush not to eliminate a tariff on titanium sponge imports from Kazakhstan -- a move that could have given foreign materials producers an unfair advantage over American companies.

Among the Timet employees who greeted Reid was Steve Fox, director of corporate research for the company, who is leading a team of scientists from defense contractors General Electric Aircraft Engines, United Defense LP and Pratt & Whitney in the titanium extracting experiments.

Fox said his team's work is progressing, but he did not elaborate on details of the project.

When some of the project details were made public by Timet in April, the company had not determined whether successful implementation of the FFC Cambridge Process would result in an expansion of the Henderson plant.

Part of the effort of determining if the FFC Cambridge Process can meet industrial standards will involve testing the quality of the titanium that is produced, and that is still years away.