Empire produces rutile pigment from Pitfield titanium ore

Published: Sep 25, 2026 16:04 (GMT+8)

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[SMM Titanium Flash] Empire Metals has successfully produced an uncoated rutile titanium-dioxide pigment from concentrates generated from the in-situ weathered ore at its Pitfield Titanium Project in Western Australia. The company says X-ray diffraction confirmed the TiO₂ was present as rutile. Chemical analysis initially produced 97.6% TiO₂, with sulphur accounting for much of the impurity; correcting for that anomaly gives a calculated grade of about 99.2% TiO₂.

The development moves Pitfield beyond simply demonstrating titanium mineralisation toward producing a higher-value titanium product. Empire is now working on optimisation and surface coating to produce a rutile pigment suitable for architectural coatings. The company says it is also assessing titanium-metal feedstock applications. These remain laboratory and product-development results, not commercial-scale production.

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