Titan Mining (TI.TO) has entered into a cooperation agreement with Teck Resources (TECK-B.TO, TECK-A.TO) to evaluate the recovery of germanium from existing processing streams at the Empire State Mines, the company said on Wednesday.
Germanium recovery could potentially become a new significant revenue opportunity and support domestic supply of materials essential for defense, semi-conductors and chip manufacturing.
The cooperation agreement contemplates evaluation of the potential for about 13,000 kilograms per year of contained germanium within existing ESM process streams.
Germanium is hosted in material currently reporting to waste streams, offering a pathway to recovery from existing operations with no additional mining or expansion of infrastructure required.
Teck's Trail operations is the only commercial-scale facility in North America recovering germanium from primary sources.