Titanium dioxide

Titanium dioxide is the form in which titanium is bought and sold. Very little of what leaves a mineral sands operation is metal; what moves through the trade is feedstock specified on its TiO₂ content, and the mineral carrying that content decides which processing route the material can enter at all. The oxide is the product, and the mineral is the qualifier on it.

What separates TiO₂ from every other oxide on this axis is its destination. As a general feature of the industry, the great majority of titanium mineral production goes to pigment rather than to metal — the oxide is the end use itself, not an intermediate on the way to an element. Also generally: rutile is naturally the higher-TiO₂ mineral and ilmenite the lower, which is why the two feed different processing routes, with pigment feedstock specified on TiO₂ content and rutile-grade material taking a different route from ilmenite-grade. A deposit carrying both is carrying two products, not one.

Orión's assemblage carries both. Zone 1 bulk channel samples — 150 kg outcrop composites — reported 19 February 2026 gave rutile at 13.36–13.49% and ilmenite at 4.82–6.19% on a mineral basis, and TiO₂ at 14.04–15.16% on an oxide basis. All mineral percentages are mass-balance estimates calculated from oxide assays, not direct measurements, and these are results for those channel samples on that date rather than deposit-wide grades. Orión has no JORC-compliant Mineral Resource or Reserve — exploration results and mineralogical estimates only, with a maiden MRE and Scoping Study pending, targeted Q3 CY26.

The supply picture, in general terms, is split geography: Europe holds a strong position in titanium processing while depending on imported feedstock. That describes where processing capacity sits, and nothing more.